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SITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
LOS  ANGELES 


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SOCIALISM  : 

AN  ANALYSIS 


SOCIALISM:    AN 
ANALYSIS    •    <By 

RUDOLF     EUCKEN 

Translated  by  JOSEPH  McCABE 


\ 


NEW   YORK 

CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S   SONS 

597-599  FIFTH  AVENUE 

1922 


(All  rights  reserved) 

PRINTED   IN   GREAT   BRITAIN 


PREFACE 

Socialism  comprises   an   ideal   of  life  as   well   as 

an  economic  statement.     This  ideal  the  politician 

may   relegate    to    a    secondary   place    and    rarely 

r  notice,   but  for    the    philosopher    it    is    the   chief 

»  matter  to  be  considered.     Bevond  both  politician 

and  philosopher,  moreover,   is  the  plain   man,   in 

^  whose  mind   the   various   movements  of  our  time 

meet  and  must  be  adjusted  to  each  other. 

The  economic  question  is  a  child   of  our  own 
>time  and  is  directly  related  to  the  present  condi- 
tion of  the  world,  but  philosophy  is  based  upon 
^ithe   tranquil    work   of  thousands    of   years.     Yet 
x^even  philosophy  seems  to  have  reached  a  critical 
v  stage    where    radical    alterations    of    all    human 
things  are  demanded.     We  see  everything  about 
us  in  a  state  of  suspense,  and  in  the  strain  which 
ensues  we  may  hope  to  obtain  some  general  im- 
provement by  combining  the  two  points  of  view. 
It   is  a  strange   situation   to   see   ancient  wisdom 
join  hands  with  the  advancing  present  :    to  find 
permanent  hopes  of  human  nature  shooting  through 
the  stormy  agitation  of  the  day. 


o 


90573 


6  SOCIALISM  :  AN  ANALYSIS 

As  a  thinking  being  man  does  not  exhaust  his 
powers  in  the  situation  of  the  moment,  the  passing 
hour.  To  give  point  to  his  efforts  he  needs  to 
direct  his  gaze  to  a  higher  order  of  life  and  a  larger 
happiness.  It  is  hope  that  gilds  for  him  the 
dreariness  of  life,  and  lends  it  some  joy  and 
splendour.  That  is  true,  in  the  first  place,  of 
the  individual,  but  it  holds  also  for  the  race ; 
for  the  race  itself  cannot  prosper  unless  it  seeks 
its  task  in  life  as  a  whole,  is  conscious  of  possibilities 
that  are  full  of  promise,  and  tries  its  strength 
upon  obstacles.  The  higher  the  wave  of  life  rises 
in  this  sense,  the  more  zealously  will  new  paths 
be  sought,  and  the  more  passionately  shall  we 
try  to  determine  which  resource  is  the  best  for 
attaining  the  desired  end.  The  question  may 
rend  humanity  into  hostile  camps  and  give  rise 
to  grave  doubts  about  the  meaning  of  the  whole 
scheme  of  things,  but  the  doubts  themselves 
will  invest  it  with  an  incomparable  greatness. 
The  race  now  receives  its  fate  from  no  alien 
power,  but  earns  it  by  its  own  resolution  and 
will. 

This  conflict  over  the  ideal  of  life  is  shared  by 
Socialism.  But  the  struggle  has  only  in  the  course 
of  time  passed  from  being  a  secondary  current  into 
the  great  stream  of  life,  and  concentrated  all  atten- 
tion upon  itself.  We  shall  see  how  many  causes 
have  contributed  to  this,  but  we  know  from  the 


PREFACE  7 

start  how  it  has  become  a  burning  question,  not 
only  for  the  German  people,  but  for  the  whole 
race.  We  cannot,  however,  sufficiently  appreciate 
the  situation  to-day  without  recalling  first,  in 
general  outline,  the  story  of  how  the  present 
strain  developed. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

PREFACE  .......         5 

CHAPTER 

I.     THE   HISTORY   OP   THE   PROBLEM  .  .       13 


II.     THE   AFFIRMATION   OF   THE  SOCIALIST  IDEAL       31 


§  1.  The  Foundation 

§  2.  Effective  Movements 

§  3.  A  Common  Structure 

III.  A   VIEW   OF   LIFE   AS   A   WHOLE  . 

IV.  EXAMINATION    OF   THE   SOCIALIST   IDEAL 

§  1.  The  Unity  and  Harmony  of  Life  . 

§  2.  The  Socialist  Idealism 

§  3.  The  Socialist  Conception  of  History 

§  4.  The  Limits  of  Socialist  Equality 

§  5.  The  Problem  of  Socialisation 

§  6.  A  Criticism  of  Economism    . 

V.     CONCLUSION        ..... 


34 

48 


83 

101 
101 
108 
119 
133 
150 
167 

181 


THE  HISTORY 
OF  THE 
PROBLEM 


CHAPTER   I 

THE  HISTORY 

OF  THE   PROBLEM 

Our  starting  point  is  the  problem  of  the  physical 
maintenance  of  man  in  face  of  an  indifferent 
or  hostile  nature  :  the  problem  of  the  hard 
struggle  for  life.  The  first  improvement  that 
individuals  obtained  in  this  regard  was  when  they 
came  together  in  social  groups.  They  now  had 
some  protection  against  both  the  terrors  of  nature 
and  the  menace  of  their  enemies.  It  was  religions 
which  first  inspired  them  with  a  sense  of  task 
and  duty  ;  and  gradually  religion  and  morality, 
especially  morality  in  its  social  aspect,  entered 
into  close  combination  and  completed  each  other. 
Of  the  religions  with  which  we  are  familiar  it 
is  chiefly  Judaism  that  has  been  of  service  in 
this  respect  in  the  course  of  its  history.  Concern 
for  the  good  of  one's  neighbour  was  the  chief 
point  of  its  creed.  Christianity  in  turn  joined 
to  the  love  of  God  an  ardent  love  of  men.  It 
devoted  itself  to  the  poor,  the  suffering,  and  the 

13 


14  SOCIALISM  :   AN   ANALYSIS 

oppressed  ;  and  it  inspired  many  humane  institu- 
tions and  enkindled  a  willingness  for  self-sacrifice. 
All  this  sentiment  and  activity,  however,  failed 
to  create  an  order  of  life  in  the  sense  of  the  Socialist 
ideal.  It  did  not  subject  the  conduct  of  the 
individual  to  a  powerful  common  will,  and  it 
created  no  firm  organisation.  On  the  one  hand, 
it  attached  more  value  to  the  voluntary  action 
of  charity,  and  on  the  other  hand  it  considered 
that  anything  that  tended  to  mitigate  the  undeni- 
able economic  distress  was  quite  secondary  to 
the  confident  expectation  and  joyous  hope  of 
a  higher  world,  in  comparison  with  which  all 
the  happiness  and  sorrow  of  this  world  fade  into 
insignificance.  The  man  who  thus  believes  that 
we  have  no  lasting  city  on  the  earth,  but  must 
ever  look  to  a  home  beyond  the  grave,  feels  no 
impulse  to  seek  a  radical  transformation  of  our 
economic  life.  He  does  not  develop  Socialistic 
ideas. 

But  the  period  which  we  call  modern  times 
brought  a  great  change.  The  religious  epoch  was 
succeeded  by  one  in  which  thought  of  this  world 
predominated,  and  which  was  occupied  more  and 
more  with  the  visible  things  of  sense.  These 
were  considered  not  merely  the  very  type  of 
reality,  but  the  essential  aims  and  values  of  life. 
There  now  appeared  a  stronger  vital  impulse  and 
a  direct  affirmation  of  life.     The  very  soul  of  the 


THE  HISTORY   OF   THE   PROBLEM     15 

new  tendency  was  to  secure  a  full  development 
of  one's  strength  and  raise  it  to  the  highest  possible 
pitch :  an  ardent  determination  to  reduce  this 
world  to  subjection  and  do  great  things  in  it ; 
to  overcome  all  obstacles  and  create  more  great- 
ness and  more  joy.  This  impulse  to  the  exercise 
of  strength  raises  the  value  of  material  things 
and  of  the  whole  of  our  economic  life.  They 
become,  not  simply  indispensable  means,  but 
independent  parts  of  life.  New  technical  paths 
are  opened  for  the  economy  of  life.  It  is,  as  a 
whole,  made  more  continuous  and  more  pro- 
gressive. It  experiences  the  most  radical  trans- 
formations as  time  goes  on.  The  old  direct 
connection  of  producer  and  consumer  disappears, 
no  less  than  the  direct  connection  of  personality 
and  work.  The  traditional  fixed  order  of  things 
yields  more  and  more  to  a  condition  of  general 
movement. 

To  this  corresponds  a  new  state  of  the  soul. 
Man  reflects  more  clearly  and  deliberately  upon 
his  position  and  conduct.  He  thinks  out  new 
theories,  and  expects  from  them  a  larger  and  more 
tangible  happiness.  Economic  novels  appear  in 
conformity  with  the  new  ideas.  It  was  in  the 
atmosphere  of  the  Renaissance  that  Thomas 
More  created  his  famous  Utopia — in  1516,  contem- 
poraneously with  the  appearance  of  Luther — 
directing    an    acute    criticism    upon    the    existing 


16  SOCIALISM  :   AN   ANALYSIS 

economic   condition,    and    sketching    a   new    ideal 
of  life  that  has  survived  four  centuries. 

Yet,  while  these  changes  do  indicate  a  fresher 
feeling  of  life  and  a  freer  attitude  toward  reality, 
there  was  no  radical  alteration  until  the  eighteenth 
century  sharply  broke  with  the  old  traditions. 
Even  modern  Socialism  is  connected  by  many 
threads  with  that  movement.  The  eighteenth 
century  clearly  grasped  the  fact  that  man  does 
not  belong  to  a  settled  and  self-contained  world, 
but  that  he  himself  is  called  upon  to  improve 
and  transform  his  existence.  With  confidence  he 
takes  control  of  his  own  fate  and  prepares  the 
conditions  of  his  own  life.  In  this  work  the  chief 
share  is  taken  by  thought.  Henceforward  it  has 
not  merely  to  mirror  an  existing  world,  or  pour 
it  into  the  moulds  of  conceptions.  It  is  not, 
to  use  an  expression  of  Hegel's,  the  owl  of  Minerva, 
which  takes  to  flight  only  after  the  first  onset 
of  dusk.  It  is  the  dawn  of  a  new  age,  spreading 
its  rays  over  the  world.  And  to  this  power  of 
remoulding  and  uplifting  the  mind  unites  a  power 
of  discrimination  and  insight  which  submits 
everything  to  the  proof,  and  accepts  only  what 
passes  the  test. 

This  vitalising  and  transforming  activity  implies 
also  a  confident  belief  in  the  power  of  reason  in 
human  nature,  which  is  to  make  all  reality  reason- 
able and  bring  all  that  is  reasonable  into  reality. 


THE   HISTORY   OF   THE   PROBLEM     17 

Religious  belief  gives  place  to  a  belief  in  reason  ; 
though  in  the  eighteenth  century  this  itself  con- 
tained  an  element  of    religion,   since  reason  was 
regarded  not  as  a  mere  property  of  a  man,  but 
as    an    indication    of   a    superhuman    intelligence. 
It  is  only  this  appeal  to  a  divine,  world-ordering 
reason  that  justifies  us  in  making  reason  superior 
to    all    human     authority    and     tradition.      This 
enthroned    reason   inspired   the   social   body   with 
the  belief  that  one  and  the  same  power  of  thought 
dominates    and   links   together   all    men ;     and    it 
is  in  this  connection  that  we  first  encounter  the 
idea  of  perfect  human  equality.     Mere  manhood, 
even   independently   of  God,    becomes   more   and 
more    a   supreme   value    in   itself.     "  Man,"    says 
Herder,  "  has  no  nobler  word  to  apply  to  himself 
than  what  he  himself  is,"     It  was  in  this  sense 
that  France  took  the  lead.     The  more  intolerable 
the   course   of  the   eighteenth   century   made   the 
existing  state  of  things,  the  more  confidently  and 
triumphantly  rose  this  belief  in  the  greatness  and 
dignity    of   human    nature.     Men    felt    that    they 
stood  on  the  threshold   of  a  better  and   happier 
age.     The    sparkling    freshness    and    liveliness    of 
the   French   literature   of  that   period   did   not   a 
little  to  open  new  paths  for  these  ideas,  and  bring 
on  the  epoch  of  the  Revolution,  in  which  we  still 
live. 
All  this,  however,   only  slowly  and  hesitatingly 

2 


18  SOCIALISM  :   AN   ANALYSIS 

overtook  the  economic  movement.  The  leading 
thinkers  of  the  eighteenth  century  were  chiefly 
concerned  with  the  universe,  and  were  more  de- 
devoted  to  philosophical  truth  than  to  the  condi- 
tion of  men,  while  the  century  was  dominated  by 
the  grim  tasks  and  complications  of  the  social 
situation  which  gave  the  tendency  its  main 
character.  At  first,  moreover,  it  was  the  political 
rather  than  the  economic  conditions  that  demanded 
attention  ;  it  was  a  question  of  political  freedom, 
not  of  equality.  Economic  systems  and  ideas  of 
progress  were  not  wanting,  it  is  true ;  but  the 
Mercantilists,  whose  work  filled  the  seventeenth 
century  and  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth,  treated 
the  economic  world  merely  as  a  means  to  increase 
the  power  of  the  State,  and  the  Physiocrats,  in 
spite  of  the  value  of  their  effort  to  base  economic 
life  upon  nature,  had  not  in  their  minds  any 
clearly  outlined  economic  scheme,  such  as  Adam 
Smith  (in  his  famous  Wealth  of  Nations,  1776) 
created. 

This  work  embodied  the  main  idea  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century  in  its  economic  application.  It 
attempted  to  make  the  intricate  economic  frame- 
work perfectly  intelligible,  and  it  threw  the  whole 
stress  upon  the  forces,  impulses,  and  aims  of 
individuals,  with  which  it  built  up  a  comprehen- 
sive picture  of  the  economic  life.  The  picture 
was    thoroughly    optimistic.     In    the    unrestricted 


THE  HISTORY   OF   THE   PROBLEM    19 

competition  of  individuals  and  nations  Smith  saw 
an  immeasurable  gain  in  freedom  and  power. 
The  interests  of  all  seemed  to  him  to  unite  in  a 
complete  harmony,  and  to  guarantee  a  steady 
progress  of  the  whole.  He  thought  of  the  whole 
as  well  as  the  individuals,  but  the  entire  collective 
condition  seemed  to  him  to  be  best  promoted 
when  it  was  left  to  the  activities  of  individuals. 
Here  also  we  have  for  the  first  time  a  general 
picture  of  the  economic  life  in  all  its  ramifications, 
an  ideal  and  a  prescription  of  life.  While  earlier 
ages  had  talked  of  a  religious,  scientific,  or 
artistic  type  of  life,  we  now  have,  added  to  these, 
if  not  placed  higher  than  they,  an  economic 
type. 

The  influence  of  Smith's  work  extended,  in 
varying  degree,  to  every  nation  in  Europe.  The 
movement  was  hailed  as  a  liberation  from  oppres- 
sive restrictions  and  an  unchecked  outpouring 
of  strength.  But  people  did  not  see  the  historical 
conditions  of  its  appearance,  or  the  immense 
complications  which  the  further  course  of  economic 
life  would  involve.  These  complications,  however, 
soon  arrived.  The  very  period  which  adopted 
the  economic  theory  of  the  eighteenth  century 
experienced  a  complete  transformation.  The 
entire  character  of  work  was  changed  by  the 
invention  of  machinery  and  the  growth  of  factories, 
and  other  problems  supervened.     In  spite  of  all 


20  SOCIALISM  :   AN   ANALYSIS 

their  achievements  men  were  troubled  in  soul, 
and  were  soon  sharply  divided.  The  heart  of 
the  new  problem  was  the  radical  alteration  of 
economic  life. 

From  this  point  onward  there  has  been  a  steadily 
increasing  restlessness.  The  work  of  the  intelli- 
gence found  more  and  more  to  do  ;  the  movement 
spread  continually  beyond  the  frontiers  of  any 
special  province,  and  man  and  his  condition 
became  the  great  problem.  French  thinkers  were 
the  first  to  give  close  attention  to  these  problems. 
The  French  Socialists  poured  upon  them  a  pene- 
trating criticism,  sketched  the  various  economic 
possibilities,  and  greatly  enriched  our  ideas  and 
broadened  our  horizon.  But  they  were  not 
connected  closely  enough  with  the  economic  life 
itself  and  its  conditions,  and  hence,  in  spite  of 
all  their  freshness  and  imagination,  they  had  no 
lasting  influence.  England,  apart  from  the 
appearance  of  a  few  striking  personalities  like 
Robert  Owen,  followed  its  own  way  at  first,  and 
had  little  influence  upon  civilisation  in  general. 

Germany  was  at  that  time  very  backward  both 
in  economic  life  and  in  theory.  We  must,  of 
course,  not  forget  that  in  that  country  philosophy 
did  a  great  deal  in  the  way  of  stimulating  intel- 
lectual life,  and  considerably  deepened  the  ideas 
of  men.  In  particular  its  starting  from  the  whole 
instead    of    the    individual,    and    its    idea    of    a 


THE   HISTORY   OF   THE   PROBLEM     21 

movement  advancing  in  virtue  of  its  own  forces, 
had  a  great  influence  on  every  section  of  social 
life.  But  there  was  no  close  connection  between 
philosophical  production  and  the  economic  problem, 
and  on  this  account  the  general  social  movement 
was  directed  by  Lassalle,  and  still  more  by  Marx, 
into  far  too  narrow  a  path,  and  the  Socialist  ideal 
was  conceived  in  too  partisan  a  sense.  Lassalle, 
it  is  true,  was  the  first  to  enkindle  the  attention 
of  large  numbers  of  Germans  with  his  fiery  appeals, 
and  he  poured  his  own  warmth  into  their  souls. 
Marx,  on  the  other  hand,  worked  with  untiring 
intellectual  labour  to  construct  a  thoroughly 
considered  system,  and  he  thus  came  to  have 
an  immense  influence  on  civilisation.  He  gave 
the  Socialistic  sentiment  a  definite  aim  and  a 
means  of  procedure.  The  chief  aim  was  to  bring 
about  a  collective  ownership  of  the  means  of 
production  and  "  socialise  "  all  property,  and  to 
recognise  in  the  class-war  a  lever  for  the  over- 
throw of  the  existing  political  conditions.  It  was 
thus  that  the  Socialist  movement  captured  the 
thoughts  and  sentiments  of  great  masses  of 
people.  We  must,  however,  bear  in  mind  that 
the  main  idea  of  Socialism  goes  far  beyond  the 
conception  of  Marx  ;  that  it  may  be  realised  in 
many  different  ways,  and  that  under  one  common 
head  it  embraces  all  sorts  of  opposite  opinions 
and    divergences.     We    are    concerned    with    this 


22  SOCIALISM  :   AN   ANALYSIS 

general  idea,  not  with  particular  theories.  Its 
starting  point  is  the  unqualified  submission  of 
individuals  to  the  social  collectivity  and  the 
treatment  of  the  economic  task  as  the  chief  business 
of  life.  Round  this  nucleus  there  gathered  a 
large  ideal  of  life  which  aims  at  completely  trans- 
forming the  human  condition. 

In  the  first  place  it  can  appeal  to  the  conver- 
gence of  various  pre-existing  tendencies.  One  of 
these  is  the  extraordinary  increase  of  economic 
duties  and  complications.  We  have  only  to 
think  of  the  revolution  of  work  through  the 
technical  application  of  the  forces  of  nature,  the 
detachment  of  the  work  from  the  personality  of 
the  man,  the  emergence  of  gigantic  industrial 
complexes,  the  sharp  antithesis  of  capital  and 
labour,  the  concentration  of  the  masses  in  large 
towns  with  its  inevitable  strengthening  of  their 
self-consciousness,  the  enormous  increase  of  the 
population  in  a  way  that  had  never  been 
known  before  on  the  earth — in  most  European 
countries  the  population  increased  threefold  in 
the  course  of  the  nineteenth  century — and,  finally, 
the  continuous  and  unprecedented  progress  of 
invention.  All  this  was  bound  to  turn  thoughts 
and  feelings  more  strongly  than  ever  to  economic 
questions  and  materially  alter  the  conditions  of 
life. 

To  this  we  must  add  the  development  of  demo- 


THE   HISTORY   OF   THE   PROBLEM     23 

cratic  ideas  and  institutions  in  modern  times. 
The  sentiment  has  gone  far  beyond  the  political 
world  and  has  deeply  influenced  the  fundamental 
ideas  of  men.  There  is  now  a  question  of  dis- 
tributing life  and  effort  as  far  as  possible  into 
elementary  forces,  to  raise  these  to  a  state  of 
complete  independence,  and  to  make  them  the 
basis  of  every  construction.  Naturally,  as  the 
power  of  the  individual  grows,  he  asserts  a  stronger 
claim  to  vital  activity  and  happiness.  All  the 
injustices  and  distresses  of  the  traditional  state 
of  things  arc  now  directly  felt,  and  all  its  antago- 
nisms seem  sharper  than  ever.  The  subject  rises 
above  the  object  and  reduces  it  to  obedience. 

Finally  there  was,  apart  from  economic  matters, 
a  zealous  effort,  which  we  may  call  Politism, 
to  enlarge  the  power  and  the  province  of  States 
as  far  as  possible.  There  have  been  great  changes 
in  this  respect  in  the  course  of  centuries.  The 
seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  especially 
in  England,  were  disposed  to  cast  the  burden  of 
political  and  economic  life  as  much  as  possible 
upon  individuals,  to  trust  to  the  free  association 
of  particular  forces,  and  to  restrict  the  interfer- 
ence of  the  State.  In  the  course  of  the  nineteenth 
century  the  power  of  the  State  and  the  community 
has  notably  increased  in  many  ways.  In  this  we 
see  the  influence  of  the  increasing  settlement 
and  differentiation  of  the  various  nations,  of  the 


24  SOCIALISM  :   AN  ANALYSIS 

historical  attitude  with  its  tendency  to  link  all 
fortunes  and  achievements  in  a  continuous  chain 
of  ages,  of  the  progressive  organisation  of  economic 
life,  and  of  the  demand  for  some  authority  that 
should  be  superior  to  the  economic  antagonisms. 
Even  speculative  German  philosophy,  with  its 
idea  of  a  collective  life  that  embraces  all  indi- 
viduals, had  a  powerful  influence  on  the  develop- 
ment. The  ideas  of  Hegel,  in  particular,  provided 
the  philosophical  framework  of  Marxism.  All 
these  things  together  engendered  a  firm  belief, 
almost  a  superstitious  belief,  in  the  State  and 
its  power  to  solve  all  the  problems  of  life. 

But  into  every  new  branch  of  the  social  life 
there  poured  an  even  deeper  movement :  a  diver- 
sion of  attention  from  the  universe  to  human 
interests.  The  older  order,  as  it  was  conceived 
in  the  Middle  Ages,  bound  man  closely  with  the 
whole  by  means  of  religion.  The  collective  order 
had  an  undisputed  superiority,  and  gave  meaning 
and  purpose  to  human  life.  In  the  course  of 
modern  times  the  stress  has  passed  more  and  more 
to  the  side  of  the  individual.  Metaphysics  was 
succeeded  by  psychology  :  religion  by  social  life. 
The  inner  connection  of  man  and  the  world  was 
more  and  more  relaxed,  until  at  last  it  broke  down 
altogether  in  a  large  number  of  cases.  The 
development  went  through  various  stages.  Religion 
seemed  at  first  to  modern  men  to  be  a  friendly 


THE   HISTORY   OF   THE   PROBLEM     25 

and  valuable  companion,  then  it  sank  into  a  sub- 
ordinate position,  and  finally  it  came  to  be  thought 
of  no  consequence  whatever,  if  not  injurious. 

The  denial  also  had  its  various  stages.  Posi- 
tivism was  one  of  the  mildest  types,  with  its 
tendency  merely  to  put  the  cosmic  problem  aside. 
More  drastic  was  the  radical  German  philosophy, 
particularly  Neo-Hegelianism.  The  leader  was 
Ludwig  Feuerbach,  who  won  large  numbers  of 
adherents  by  the  definiteness  of  his  statements 
and  the  glow  of  his  eloquence.  Religion,  like 
everything  supersensual,  seemed  to  him  "  out- 
worn." Engels,  who  was  an  ardent  follower  of 
Feuerbach,  said :  "  We  have  done  with  God." 
Religion  seemed  to  Feuerbach  an  illegitimate 
extension  to  the  whole  scheme  of  things  of  man's 
ideas  and  aspirations :  a  mischievous  illusion 
which  weakened  the  power  of  men  and  distracted 
them  from  their  proper  aims.  His  ideas  are  easily 
gathered  from  these  words  of  his :  "  God  was 
my  first,  reason  my  second,  man  my  third  and 
final  thought."  It  is  true  that  Socialism  has 
room  for  great  differences  of  opinion  in  regard 
to  religion,  but  as  a  whole  religion  plays  no  part 
of  any  importance  in  it,  and  the  Erfurt  Program, 
in  declaring  that  religion  is  a  private  affair  of 
the  individual,  deprived  it  of  the  position  of  centre 
of  gravity  for  man's  thoughts  and  actions.  The 
man    who    regards    religion    as    a    private    matter 


26  SOCIALISM  :   AN   ANALYSIS 

cannot  think  much  of  it.  He  has  plainly  broken 
with  traditional  ideas. 

The  result  of  all  this  is  that  Socialism  has 
framed  its  own  ideal,  and  it  seeks  to  win  the  whole 
of  human  nature.  The  strength  of  this  ideal  is 
that  it  meets  an  actual  movement  in  modern  life 
which,  by  human  force  and  resolution,  is  raised 
to  the  position  of  a  principle  and  a  whole,  and 
is  therefore  the  work  of  the  whole  man  and  the 
whole  of  humanity.  The  reciprocal  support  of 
facts  and  ideas  lends  a  very  considerable  power 
to  the  whole.  We  have  an  experiment  on  the 
grandest  possible  lines  in  humanity  and  conducted 
by  it.  It  puts  a  decisive  question,  and  it  demands 
either  Yes  or  No.  It  is  only  the  experience  of 
the  collective  life  that  can  show  whether  the 
answer  which  Socialism  gives  meets  the  whole 
reality  of  human  nature  ;  for  here  it  is  not  simply 
a  question  of  mere  theories  and  types  of  life, 
however  well  they  may  be  constructed,  but  of 
actual  vital  developments.  There  is  question,  in 
a  word,  of  the  possibility  of  a  new  life  which 
promises  man  an  ampler  truth  and  a  larger  happi- 
ness, and  may  absorb  his  whole  soul.  The  new 
conceptions  of  life  involve  such  radical  alterations 
of  values  as  humanity  never  saw  before. 

But  the  man  who  propounds  this  question  must 
not  analyse  the  movement  from  without,  as  if 
it    were    a    soulless    object,    and    content    himself 


THE   HISTORY    OF   THE   PROBLEM     27 

with  a  cold  description.  He  must  get  into  the 
heart  of  the  work  of  it,  examine  its  impulses, 
and  share  the  life  to  some  extent  and  make  it 
his  own.  Any  person  who  sees  only  its  detached 
parts  will  naturally  lose  the  general  picture ; 
he  will  find  it  easy  to  criticise  and  condemn,  but 
he  will  not  do  justice  to  his  subject,  and  his 
criticism  will  not  affect  it.  The  further  course 
of  this  essay  will  show  that  a  sympathetic  study 
does  not  imply  assent,  but  we  must  insist  that 
to  condemn  a  thing  without  understanding  it  is 
useless.  We  will  therefore  first  try  to  follow  the 
Socialistic  ideal  in  its  own  life  as  impartially  as 
we  can. 


THE   AFFIRMATION 
OF   THE 
SOCIALIST   IDEAL 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   AFFIRMATION   OF 
THE   SOCIALIST   IDEAL 

Life,  as  we  are  concerned  with  it,  is  no  mere 
accumulation  of  separate  efforts  and  achievements. 
It  must  have  certain  firm  general  lines  about 
which  all  its  diverse  contents  are  arranged,  and 
which  give  an  internal  continuity  to  the  whole. 
Now  the  Socialistic  life  which  at  present  pervades 
the  race  has  two  chief  features,  and  these  mingle 
Yes  and  No  inseparably  with  each  other. 

1.  It  takes  its  stand  exclusively  on  the  ground 
of  experience,  on  our  direct  perception  of  action 
and  reaction,  and  it  condemns  every  effort  which 
looks  beyond  these  limits  as  erroneous  and  fruitless. 

2.  It  conceives  reality  as  a  combination  of 
particular  elements  which  are  mutually  related 
to  each  other  and  are  in  a  state  of  constant  re- 
ciprocity. The  new  thing  it  promises  is  to  bring 
these  elements  more  closely  together  and  relate 
them  more  profitably  to  each  other.  It  draws 
the  circle  round  them  more  stringently,  discovers 

31 


32  SOCIALISM  :   AN   ANALYSIS 

and  develops  a  number  of  hitherto  dormant  re- 
sources, brings  the  scattered  elements  into  firmer 
connection,  and  by  this  vitalising  of  the  whole 
secures  a  fuller  and  richer  content  of  the  human 
kingdom.  In  this  work  it  makes  a  confident 
affirmation  of  life,  and  promises  it  an  ever  increasing 
happiness.  It  comes  into  an  already  existing 
world,  but  by  its  influence  it  can  convert  what 
merely  happens  into  an  act  of  its  own.  Since  it 
aims  at  inaugurating  a  new  state  of  things,  it  has 
the  character  of  an  idealism,  but  an  idealism  that 
rejects  all  imaginary  greatnesses  and  values,  and 
conceives  its  task  entirely  within  the  limits  of 
reality.  This  conception  of  life  has  drastically 
to  deny  and  reject  all  that  is  alien  and  inimical, 
and  therefore  it  shows  a  very  definite  limitation 
and  resistance  ;  but  this  limitation  and  rejection 
are  in  the  interest  of  a  predominant  affirmation, 
which  discovers  and  appreciates  greatness  in  what 
is  simple  and  lies  immediately  round  us. 

This   general   conception   may   be   divided   into 
various  parts.     It  implies  : 

1.  A  firm  foundation, 

2.  Effective  movements,  and 

3.  A  common  structure. 

In  regard  to  the  first,  it  demands  : 

(a)  More  unity  and  continuity  than  there  are  in 
the  existing  state  of  things,  and 


AFFIRMATION   OF   THE   IDEAL       33 

(b)  A   closer   connection   with   man   and   better 
concentration  of  his  powers. 

As  regards  the  second,  it  demands  : 

(a)  The  exclusive  basing  of  life  and  all  its  arrange- 
ments upon  the  present  (sincerity),  and 

(b)  The     equal     vitalisation     of     all     elements 
(equality  and  justice). 

In  regard  to  the  third,  it  demands  : 

(a)  Co-operation  in  a  common  will  and  conduct 
(socialisation),  and 

(b)  A    closer    association    of   the    material    and 
the  ideal  factors  of  life  (economism). 

The  general  feature  that  arises  from  all  this  is 
the  firmer  concentration  and  fuller  vitalisation  of 
human  life  in  every  respect,  an  all-round  increase  : 
of  life.     Now  let  us  briefly  and  clearly  consider 
each  of  these  characteristic  movements. 


3 


THE    FOUNDATION 

(a)  The  Demand  for  Greater   Unity. 

The  Socialist  life  is  vigorously  opposed  to  the  con- 
fusion and  the  antagonisms  which  oppress  modern 
life.  There  was  much  confusion  in  earlier  ages  of 
history,  but  it  never  reached  such  a  pitch  as  now, 
and  never  before  was  the  intolerable  mischief  of 
such  a  condition  felt  so  keenly  as  now.  Our  age 
is  a  medley  of  old  and  new,  of  higher  and  lower, 
jostling  and  interfering  with  each  other.  We 
moderns  borrow  an  important  part  of  our  culture 
from  antiquity,  with  its  instinct  for  form  and 
limit,  yet  we  have  all  round  us  the  immense  abund- 
ance of  strength  and  the  unceasing  exaltation  of 
life  of  our  later  age.  We  cannot  do  without  the 
higher  world  opened  to  us  by  Christianity,  with- 
out its  deep  inwardness  and  its  moral  earnestness  ; 
but  at  the  same  time  we  eagerly  embrace  the  visible 
world  and  its  wealth.  The  currents  of  modern 
life  diverge  even  more  than  this.     We  rejoice  in 

34 


AFFIRMATION   OF   THE   IDEAL       35 

the  sparkling  fulness  of  life  of  the  Renaissance, 
but  we  find  indispensable  also  the  clear  intellectual 
life  and  purposive  illumination  that  followed  it. 
We  enjoy  gratefully  the  splendid  treasures  of  our 
classical  days,  yet  we  adopt  also  a  strict  realism 
with  all  its  emphasis  on  the  world  of  sense.  Is 
it  any  wonder  that  individuals  differ  so  much 
from  each  other  in  their  acts  and  deeds  and  feelings  ? 
Is  it  surprising  that  our  life  is  so  much  occupied 
with  indecisive  reflections  and  varying  moods, 
and  that  there  is  no  indisputable  goal  to  combine 
our  forces  and  put  a  check  upon  the  wilfulness  of 
individuals  ?  Is  it  strange  that  we  have  no  great 
men,  no  men  of  high  creative  power,  no  men 
whose  souls  pour  fire  upon  the  world  ? 

For  several  decades  this  lack  of  inner  unity 
and  of  a  dominant  centre  has  been  painfully  felt 
and  deplored.  I  myself  wrote  a  work  in  1888, 
in  which  I  described  the  actual  spiritual  confusion 
and  did  my  best  to  find  a  remedy.  Since  then 
the  inner  collapse  has  grown  worse  than  ever, 
and  it  now  darkens  our  days. 

The  Socialist  ideal  takes  up  a  firm  attitude 
in  face  of  this  confusion,  and  promises  us  a  radical 
cure  of  it.  Where  else,  it  asks,  can  a  man  find 
unity  and  continuity  except  in  himself,  in  concen- 
tration upon  the  centre  of  his  own  life,  in  his  self- 
preservation  and  his  welfare  ?  Here  alone  can  the 
various    movements    meet,    and    strengthen    and 


36  SOCIALISM  :   AN   ANALYSIS 

supplement  each  other.  Here  everything  that  is 
subordinate  or  superfluous  must  be  discarded, 
all  antagonisms  be  reconciled  or  disappear,  and 
the  spiritual  and  the  material  form  an  indissoluble 
unity.  To  this  general  condition  of  man  every- 
thing must  contribute,  and  by  it  as  a  standard 
everything  must  be  judged.  All  experience  must 
be  associated  with  the  simplest  and  most  funda- 
mental sensations.  The  past  must  be  converted 
into  a  living  present.  From  this  standpoint  we 
attain  that  comprehensive  philosophy  of  life  which 
our  age  so  sorely  needs.  Life  and  work  enter 
into  an  intimate  harmony. 

The  strength  of  this  conception  of  life  lies  not 
merely  in  the  fact  that  it  treats  a  whole  nation 
as  an  economic  unity — in  this  respect  Rodbertus 
with  his  finely  graduated  system  might  challenge 
comparison  with  it — but  still  more  in  its  construc- 
tion of  a  common  measure  of  life  and  thought  for 
the  whole  man,  its  creation  of  a  spiritual  atmo- 
sphere that  embraces  and  adjusts  all  duties  and 
all  accomplishments,  J  A  common  atmosphere  of 
this  kind  is  now  found,  apart  from  Socialism, 
onlv  in  Catholicism,  but  we  know  how  wide  a 
chasm  there  is  between  this  creed  and  modern 
man ;  besides  that  its  reconciliation  of  contra- 
dictions cannot  be  regarded  by  our  critical  culture 
as  a  real  inner  unity.  Catholicism  speaks  to  us 
in   the   language   of  the   Middle   Ages.     Socialism 


AFFIRMATION   OF   THE   IDEAL       37 

lives  in  the  very  heart  of  the  present,  and  shares 
its  struggles  and  anxieties. 

(b)  The  Demand  for  a  New  Texture  of  Reality. 

Socialism  takes  up  its  position  clearly  and 
deliberately  upon  a  man's  experience,  but  it  cannot 
do  this  without  coming  to  terms  with  a  deep- 
rooted  error  and  materially  altering  the  tradi- 
tional idea.  The  question  is  :  What  is  the  position 
of  man  in  regard  to  the  world  ?  Clearly  the  great 
whole  embraces  him  and  prepares  life  for  him  ; 
but  has  he  the  right  to  regard  himself  as  its  centre, 
seeing  that  he  is  entirely  subject  to  the  immutable 
laws  of  the  universe  and  is,  measured  bv  the  in- 
unity  of  time  and  space,  so  negligible  and  diminu- 
tive a  creature  ?  Through  countless  ages  he  has 
committed  the  error  of  putting  himself,  in  his 
own  opinion,  in  the  place  of  the  world.  He  has 
unthinkingly  imported  human  magnitudes  and 
values  into  it,  and  imagined  it  subordinated  to 
his  own  designs.  He  deals  with  an  image  he  has 
himself  created  as  if  it  were  genuine  reality, 
and  he  ascribes  to  it  his  own  chief  wishes  and 
hopes. 

This  humanisation  of  the  world  gave  rise  to  a 
whole  world  of  illusions,  and  made  man  a  stranger 
to  himself.  More  than  two  thousand  years  ago 
Xenophanes  said  that  men  take  their  images  of 


38  SOCIALISM  :   AN   ANALYSIS 

the  gods  from  themselves.  Modern  thought  has, 
in  the  whole  course  of  its  development,  recognised 
the  deceptiveness  and  error  of  this,  and  has  striven 
constantly  to  banish  the  supersensuous  and  meta- 
physical as  an  illusion  from  the  human  mind. 
Positivism  made  headway  with  its  claim  that  we 
ought  to  restrict  our  ideas  and  our  life  rigorously 
to  the  province  of  direct  perception  and  experi- 
ence. Not  without  risk  of  grave  and  dangerous 
error  could  we  pass  that  province,  it  said  ;  and 
still  less  should  we  trouble  about  our  relations 
to  unknown  powers,  or  place  any  reliance  on  them. 
In  this  way  all  religion  and  all  metaphysics  was 
declared  to  be  a  delusion.  By  the  side  of  this 
sober  conception  of  the  Positivists  there  then 
appeared  Ludwig  Feuerbach's  more  highly  coloured 
picture,  and  all  theology  and  metaphysics  was 
reduced  to  anthropology.  Socialism  shares  these 
ideas,  but  its  own  special  contribution  is  that  it 
took  what  had  hitherto  been  regarded  by  small 
groups  as  a  scientific  theory  and  made  it  a  power, 
an  inspiration,  for  great  masses  of  men. 

In  this,  as  in  so  many  other  things,  Socialism 
availed  itself  vigorously  of  an  existing  movement 
of  the  time,  and  followed  it  boldly  to  its  logical 
consequences.  It  detached  the  problem  of  life 
entirely  from  the  cosmic  problem,  and  cast  man 
entirely  upon  his  own  resources.  The  limitation 
and   impoverishment   which   this   involves  do  not 


AFFIRMATION   OF   THE   IDEAL       39 

trouble  it.  What  do  those  inaccessible  depths 
matter  to  us  ?  Our  sorrows  and  sufferings  do  not 
seem  to  touch  them.  Those  dark  powers  neither 
hurt  nor  help  us.  The  great  world  follows  only 
its  own  iron  laws,  and  they  know  no  exception 
and  admit  no  accommodation  in  the  interest  of 
man. 

Moreover,  this  very  limitation  means  a 
strengthening  of  our  life,  and  this  far  outweighs 
all  that  is  sacrificed.  We  shall  work  all  the  more 
energetically  to  improve  our  real  possessions  when 
we  cease  to  think  about  imaginary  ones.  What- 
ever else  be  doubtful,  we  have  man — man  in  the 
totality  of  his  life,  man  above  and  beyond  all 
separate  parts.  That  solid  fact  becomes  a  great 
task  for  us  when  we  take  over  the  whole  of  human 
nature.  History  shows  that  man  is  not  something 
perfectly  obvious  to  himself.  He  has  first  to  dis- 
cover himself ;  he  has  to  tear  away  all  false  accre- 
tions, all  parasitic  growths,  all  that  is  imposed 
from  without,  all  artificial  and  untrue  ideas  of 
life. 

Humanity  has  repeatedly  found  refuge  in  itself, 
in  its  own  unadulterated  nature.  It  has  time  after 
time  been  seized  with  an  ardent  desire  to  work 
out  its  own  being,  to  make  its  way  unhindered 
to  purer  and  stronger  vital  sources.  It  did  so  in 
the  later  period  of  the  ancient  world,  and  again 
in  the  course  of  the  eighteenth  century.     Rousseau, 


40  SOCIALISM  :   AN  ANALYSIS 

particularly,  pointed  out  a  way  in  which  life 
might  be  delivered  from  the  ruins  of  the  past 
and  the  evils  of  the  present.  Do  we  not  suffer 
from  similar  evils  to-day?  Do  we  not  often  lose 
sight  of  man  as  a  whole  in  considering  the  parts, 
in  dealing  with  the  narrow  mind  which  takes 
its  little  corner  for  the  whole  world  ?  Do  not 
even  scholars  and  artists  strangely  forget  the 
whole  man  at  times  in  the  contemplation  of 
themselves  ? 

We  have  to  decide  which  is  the  best  way  to 
choose  in  order  to  put  man  into  full  possession  of 
his  powers.  The  Socialist  ideal  would  give  a 
simple  and  plain  answer  to  this.  It  is  "  society  "  : 
it  is  human  co-operation  that  develops  the  proper 
characteristics  of  man,  that  strengthens  by  asso- 
ciation what  has  become  weak  and  uncertain  and 
irresolute  through  dissociation.  Society  alone  can 
develop  the  real  human  qualities  of  a  man  ;  it 
is  only  amongst  men  that  one  becomes  a  man. 
The  old  truth,  that  man  is  a  social  animal 
(£,(oov  ttoXltlkov,  animal  sociale),  is  now  for  the  first 
time  fully  appreciated.  All  the  prerogatives  of 
man  depend  upon  his  not  remaining  an  isolated 
point  but  being  in  constant  association  and  reci- 
procal activity  with  his  fellows.  As  a  definite 
proof  of  this  Aristotle  has  pointed  to  the  formation 
of  rational  speech  as  opposed  to  the  mere  sounds 
by   which    animals    express   their   sensations,    and 


AFFIRMATION   OF  THE   IDEAL       41 

has  related  the  whole  advance  of  reason  to  this. 
But,  under  the  influence  of  the  old  ideas,  he  re- 
garded reason,  the  intellectual  faculty,  as  the  chief 
thing,  and  he  deduced  the  human  form  of  society 
as  a  simple  consequence  of  this.  The  modern 
way  of  thinking,  which  starts  from  experience, 
has  taken  up  the  contrary  position.  It  considers 
society  to  be  the  root  of  all  spiritual  power,  of 
everything  that  lifts  man  above  nature. 

The  thorough  elaboration  of  this  idea  gives  a 
new  view  of  human  existence.  All  conceptions 
of  greatness  and  value  diverge  greatly  from  the 
traditional  standard  ;  all  the  separation  into 
different  provinces  is  seized  upon  by  the  new 
thought  and  adapted  to  it.  What  we  had  been 
accustomed  to  call  "  reason  "  is  now  a  standard 
of  human  greatness,  and,  whereas  we  had  formerly 
distinguished  between  a  secular  or  cosmic  and  a 
social  life,  the  social  life  is  now  our  exclusive  con- 
cern. Society  now  engenders  all  spirituality  and 
embraces  the  whole  of  life,  and  its  welfare  has 
become  the  highest  of  aims.  This  aim  has  now 
two  meanings,  the  old  and  the  new.  '  Good  ' 
is  now  merely  something  that  promotes  the  good 
of  society  ;  it  coincides  with  "useful"  in  the  social 
sense.  "  True  "  is  what  has  results  in  the  social 
order  and  ensures  its  assent.  There  is  no  longer 
any  room  for  the  old  conceptions  of  things  that 
are  good  and  true  in  themselves  ;   there  is  no  such 


42  SOCIALISM  :  AN  ANALYSIS 

thing  as  good  and  true  in  that  sense.  In  this  way 
man  becomes,  in  the  words  of  Protagoras,  the 
measure  of  all  things  ;  with  the  difference,  how- 
ever, that  we  do  not  mean  the  individual  man, 
but  collective  humanity. 

This  development  has  made  life  and  conduct 
more  fluid  and  elastic.  It  gets  rid  of  all  the  rigidity 
of  absolute  and  self-sufficing  truth.  It  brings  the 
standard  of  greatness  nearer  to  man's  condition 
and  efforts.  Like  the  eighteenth  century,  the 
movement  has  directed  a  penetrating  criticism 
upon,  and  greatly  altered,  the  traditional  standards 
of  life,  but  it  differs  from  the  earlier  phase  in  the 
fact  that  Socialism  does  this  from  the  point  of 
view  of  society,  not  of  the  individual.  This  makes 
it  less  abstract,  and  connects  it  more  closely  with 
our  actual  circumstances  and  duties.  Thought 
and  action  can  unite  more  intimately.  The  one 
can  pass  without  difficulty  into  the  other. 

But,  while  Socialism  is  more  concerned  about 
the  social  condition  than  thought  was  generally 
in  the  eighteenth  century,  which  was  mainly  con- 
cerned with  the  individual,  the  aim  is  substantially 
the  same.  It  is  a  question  of  bringing  the  whole 
of  existence  under  man's  control.  For  this  pur- 
pose we  need  above  all  things  clearness  and  strength, 
and  the  combination  of  the  two  promises  us  a 
new  world.  We  have  to  develop  reason  to  a  pitch 
of    complete    self-consciousness,    to    root    out    all 


AFFIRMATION   OF   THE   IDEAL       43 

unreason,    to    shape    everything    in    view    of    a 
definite  purpose. 

The  chief  means  of  attaining  this  desired  clear- 
ness and  strength  is  education.  It  is  especially 
by  education  that  a  man  is  raised  from  the  state 
of  nature  to  civilisation  and  develops  his  entire 
humanity.  It  has  to  brace  all  his  powers  and 
make  them  of  value  for  vital  purposes.  It  can 
raise  them  indefinitely ;  and  on  it  is  chiefly  based 
the  confident  expectation  of  an  unfaltering  mental 
and  moral  progress  of  the  race.  That  is  the  spirit 
of  the  saying  of  Helvetius  :  "  L'education  peut 
tout."  In  this  ancient  and  modern  thought  differ 
materially  from  each  other.  Ancient  thought  re- 
garded a  man's  endowment  as  a  fixed  and  limited 
quantity  which  could  only  be  developed  to  the 
extent  of  its  inherent  capacity.  Modern  thought 
sees  in  man  a  germ  of  indefinite  life  which  can 
develop  all  kinds  of  fresh  powers.  Hence  our  con- 
cern about  education  has  become  the  main  business 
of  life,  and  all  the  resources  of  society  must  be 
enlisted  in  it.  For  this  it  is  necessary  to  bring 
the  whole  material  and  spiritual  possessions  of 
the  race  to  each  individual  and  thus  thoroughly 
permeate  him.  This  effort  on  the  part  of  Socialism 
is  in  harmony  with  an  historical  movement  which 
has  greatly  increased  in  strength  in  recent  centuries. 
We  find  ourselves  confronting  colossal  tasks.  Has 
not  culture  been  far  too  little  a  matter  of  the  whole 


44  SOCIALISM:   AN  ANALYSIS 

man  and  of  each  individual  man  ?  Has  it  not 
entered  far  too  little  into  the  individual  life  ? 
Great  teachers  of  the  race,  such  as  Comenius, 
Pestalozzi  and  Froebel,  have  deeply  deplored  this 
alienation  of  our  culture.  Is  there  not  much 
here  for  Socialism  to  do  ?  Up  to  the  present 
there  has  been  a  deep  cleft  between  the  higher  and 
lower  strata  of  the  social  order.  Must  we  not  do 
all  we  can  to  bridge  this  gulf  ? 

Modern  education  is  in  harmony  with  modern 
humanitarianism.  It  corresponds  with  the  earnest 
endeavour  of  Socialism  to  bring  more  comfort 
and  joy  into  the  life  of  each  individual,  to  free  it 
as  far  as  possible  from  restrictions,  to  substitute 
mildness  and  kindliness  for  hardness  and  rigorism, 
to  infuse  this  spirit  even  into  legislation  and 
government.  There  is  question  here  not  only 
of  the  content,  but  also  the  form,  of  life,  which  is 
often  wrongly  underestimated.  It  is  a  particular 
weakness  of  German  life  to  treat  the  subjective 
condition,  the  feelings  of  individuals,  as  secondary 
and  unimportant.  We  were  content  with  the  sound- 
ness of  our  measure,  and  forgot  to  make  it  attractive 
to  men.  Aristotle  shrewdly  observed  that  food 
must  be  prepared  so  as  to  satisfy  the  guests  as 
well  as  the  cook.  He  was  thinking  of  political 
matters,  and  his  words  contain  a  lesson  for  Germany. 
The  acknowledged  excellence  of  our  officials  has 
not  prevented   them  from   being  very   much   dis- 


AFFIRMATION   OF   THE   IDEAL       45 

liked  at  times.  The  harsh  and  masterly  tone 
they  often  adopt,  as  if  they  were  schoolmasters, 
has  done  a  great  deal  to  make  many  a  German 
feel  as  if  he  lives  in  a  foreign  land  in  his  own  coun- 
try. This  evil  of  the  mutual  estrangement  of 
citizens  and  officials  goes  back  even  to  the  time 
of  Luther,  who  says  :  "  Doctor  Martinus  is  not 
only  a  theologian  and  a  defender  of  the  faith,  but 
also  a  champion  of  the  rights  of  poor  folk  who 
come  from  every  part  to  ask  his  help  and  inter- 
cession with  the  authorities  in  such  numbers 
that  he  would  have  quite  enough  to  do  without 
taking  any  other  work  on  his  shoulders."  Do 
not  these  words  show  much  between  the  lines  ? 

There  was  also  the  evil,  right  down  to  our  own 
time,  that  the  State  demanded  many  sacrifices 
of  its  subjects  without  taking  any  trouble  to 
secure  their  own  assent  and  consent.  Such  a 
thing  was  possible  in  earlier  ages,  when  life  was 
more  oppressive,  but  it  is  impossible  now  that 
the  minds  of  men  are  awake. 

Dislike  of  us  abroad  corresponded  to  this  dis- 
like of  officials  in  Germany  itself.  We  had  no 
skill  in  getting  foreign  peoples  to  recognise  our 
real  qualities.  The  French  were,  in  this  respect, 
far  more  skilful.  The  unhappy  issue  of  the  war 
is  partly  due  to  the  fact  that  the  nation  which 
regarded  itself  as  a  nation  of  poets  and  thinkers 
had  not  the  gift  of  presentation,   the  eloquence, 


46  SOCIALISM  :   AN   ANALYSIS 

the  fire,  to  compete  with  the  superior  propaganda 
of  other  peoples.  We — that  is  to  say,  mainly  the 
Government  of  the  time — were  clumsy  in  the 
psychic  mobilisation  of  our  forces,  in  organising 
them  and  concentrating  them  upon  the  great 
struggle.  We  do  not  sufficiently  apply  our  strength 
at  decisive  points.  The  German  needs  to  take  to 
heart  the  words  of  the  wise  Philo,  that  man  does 
not  live  in  a  desert ;  he  must  not  underestimate 
others,  and  must  remember  that  he  has  not  only 
the  reality,  but  also  the  appearance,  to  consider. 
We  regarded  it  as  a  great  thing  to  treat  the  effect 
on  other  nations  as  a  matter  of  no  consequence. 

It  was  even  more  mischievous  than  our  state- 
craft was  unable  to  understand  the  spiritual 
currents  of  the  time  and  direct  them  in  the  proper 
way.  We  thought,  for  instance,  that  we  could 
neglect  with  impunity  the  great  democratic  wave 
that  has  surged  through  the  civilised  world  for  the 
last  few  centuries.  We  lost  sight  of  the  profound 
difference  between  the  thinker  and  the  statesman. 
The  thinker  can,  and  must,  pursue  his  work  on  a 
permanent  level,  undisturbed  by  the  views  of  men  ; 
but  the  statesman  has  to  reckon  with  the  currents 
of  the  hour  as  so  many  forces  or  he  will  come  to 
grief. 

Here,  as  in  so  many  other  questions,  small  things 
and  great  are  often  mingled  together,  but  the 
Socialist  is  determined  that  both  shall  serve  his 


AFFIRMATION   OF   THE   IDEAL        47 

main  design  of  making  man  and  his  welfare  the 
central  consideration.  It  is  not  a  question  of 
particular  achievements  or  demands,  but  of 
changing  man  as  a  whole,  of  delivering  him  from 
deep-rooted  errors  and  putting  him  in  the  full 
enjoyment  of  his  powers.  It  is  a  question  of  a 
radical  alteration  of  values  in  human  life,  of 
making  a  new  man.  And  the  first  condition  of 
doing  this  is  a  solid  foundation,  which  Socialism 
promises. 


§2 
EFFECTIVE    MOVEMENTS 

We  must  now  consider  the  various  transfers  and 
increases  of  strength  which  the  Socialist  life  demands 
and  effects.  In  this  respect  it  seems  to  be  the 
fulfilment  and  completion  of  certain  movements 
which  pervade  the  whole  of  modern  life.  It  draws 
these  movements  to  itself  and  increases  their 
intensity.  For  its  main  purpose,  however,  it 
requires  a  transfer  and  an  intensification  at  two 
chief  points  :  it  demands  that  we  turn  from  the 
past  to  the  present,  and  it  demands  a  redistri- 
bution of  forces  in  the  direction  of  equality.  On 
the  one  side  the  Socialist  life  conducts  a  stern 
struggle  against  insincerity,  and  on  the  other  side 
against  the  injustice  and  inequality  of  the  tradi- 
tional order.  This  union  of  sincerity  and  justice 
of  life  promises  to  give  the  whole  a  greater  vitality 
and  an  ethical  character  that  is  far  superior  to 
the  ordinary  moral  teaching.  We  will  first  con- 
sider this  new  life  in  its  relation  to  the  times. 

43 


AFFIRMATION   OF   THE   IDEAL        49 

(c)  The  Struggle  Against  Insincerity  of  Life. 

Socialism  finds  that  the  traditional  mode  of 
life  is  unsound  in  that  it  does  not  trust  to  its  own 
powers,  but  binds  us  to  past  ages,  and  sustains 
externally  what  is  internally  dead.  It  thus  prevents 
us  from  giving  vitality  and  full  value  to  the  re- 
sources of  our  own  time,  and  places  restrictions 
on  our  activity.  Certainly  we  have  here  a  serious 
problem.  It  is  one  of  the  main  distinctions  between 
the  natural  and  the  spiritual  world  that  in  the 
former  everything  remains  in  its  state  of  rest  or 
movement  until  it  experiences  some  change  from 
without ;  whereas  in  the  realm  of  spirit  each 
action  requires  a  continuous  vitalisation  if  it  is 
not  to  sink  rapidly  or  wholly  disappear.  A  sus- 
tained strain  is  necessary  to  keep  up  to  the  height 
that  has  been  reached.  In  most  cases  this  is  not 
done.  In  the  average  man  the  law  of  inertia  holds 
good ;  it  turns  action  into  a  mechanical  habit, 
and  the  real  present  becomes  merely  an  accumu- 
lation of  past  elements.  Once  more,  therefore, 
a  fact  becomes  a  problem  for  us  :  the  past  ever 
threatens  to  spread  over  the  present. 

The  complications  that  arise  from  this  fact 
have  greatly  exercised  modern  times  and  especi- 
ally our  own  time.  Our  civilisation  has  sprung 
from  historical  ground — we  need  only  think  of 
Christianity  and  of  the  ancient  world — yet  modern 

4 


50  SOCIALISM  :   AN  ANALYSIS 

times  have  produced  a  culture  of  their  own.  Old 
and  new  now  mingle  in  great  confusion.  We  live 
between  two  worlds,  and  the  modern  world  tends 
to  fall  into  a  grave  insincerity.  The  struggle 
against  this  was  energetically  taken  up  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  but  all  sorts  of  obstacles 
were  put  in  its  way.  Socialism  had  the  distinct 
merit  of  coming  nearest  to  living  history  and 
taking  up  its  stand  mainly  on  the  present.  By 
this  radical  displacement  it  has  very  greatly 
quickened  the  pulse  of  life.  Many  institutions 
were  fitted  for  particular  ages,  but  they  have 
far  outlived  the  need  for  them.  What  was  once 
good  has  been  turned  by  the  course  of  history 
into  an  evil.  Is  it  not  useful,  indeed  necessary, 
to  make  an  end  of  these  things  ?  Step  by  step 
we  have  to  advance  from  a  half-awakened  and 
narrowly  restricted  world  to  one  that  is  wide 
awake  and  consciously  active.  The  idea  of  pro- 
gress has  a  very  powerful  influence  in  this.  It  is, 
at  the  bottom,  the  desire  of  modern  man  for 
indefinite  life.  From  the  heights  of  philosophic 
speculation  it  has  spread  over  the  whole  of  life. 
And,  as  it  spread,  it  inspired  a  vigorous  deter- 
mination to  get  rid  entirely  of  all  that  was  out- 
worn and  separate  it  from  what  was  advancing. 

Think  of  religion  !  How  many  contradictions 
there  are  in  it  to-day,  and  how  earnestly  do  we 
long  for  complete  sincerity  !      We  quietly  accept 


AFFIRMATION   OF   THE   IDEAL       51 

the  old  ecclesiastical  picture  of  the  world  with  its 
sense-appealing  miracles,  and  at  the  same  time 
we  admit  the  teaching  of  modern  science  with 
its  vigorous  ideas  of  causality.  We  base  our 
religious  beliefs  on  facts  of  an  historical  character, 
and  at  the  same  time  our  historical  culture  and 
criticism  make  them  uncertain,  if  not  incredible. 
We  form  our  conception  of  the  world  independently 
of  all  human  standards,  and  at  the  same  time 
our  religious  and  personal  ideas  imply  standards 
which  to  the  modern  scientific  mind  are  purely 
mythological.  The  contradiction  goes  far  beyond 
mere  ideas  ;  it  rends  the  fundamental  impulse  of 
life.  From  our  religious  point  of  view  we  regard 
man  as  a  feeble  being,  entirely  dependent  on 
supernatural  assistance  ;  in  our  culture  we  describe 
him  as  a  being  relying  upon  his  own  powers  and 
summoned  to  awaken  all  his  forces. 

The  deepest  reason  for  the  confusion  is  that 
Christianity  brought  about  a  specific  historical 
situation,  and  this  was  permanently  established, 
though  it  fell  out  of  accord  with  the  progress  of 
the  ages.  At  the  time  when  Christianity  arose 
Mediterranean  civilization  was  much  enfeebled, 
and  it  needed  a  fresh  vital  impulse  ;  and  at  the 
same  time  there  appeared  new  peoples  to  whom 
the  old  civilisation  was  to  be  communicated. 
This  conjunction  of  circumstances  led  to  a  work 
of  synthesis  which  gave  a  support  and  a  destiny 


52  SOCIALISM:   AN  ANALYSIS 

to  the  new  peoples.  Meantime,  however,  great 
changes  occurred  in  life  itself.  Are  we  now  to 
seek  light  for  our  seething  and  tumultuous  present, 
with  its  great  problems,  from  the  past,  and  measure 
it  by  the  ancient  standards  ?  Is  a  dead  age  to 
dominate  our  own  time  ?  Deeper  still  is  the  con- 
tradiction that  Positivism  found  in  our  condition, 
and  Socialism  has  willingly  taken  over  from  it : 
tbe  whole  of  religion  is,  it  says,  merely  an  his- 
torical category,  an  anthropomorphic  setting  of 
reality,  due  entirely  to  special  conditions  that 
exist  no  longer.  To  see  this  anthropomorphism 
clearly  is  to  destroy  it.  Are  we  to  blame  Socialism 
for  drawing  the  logical  conclusion  from  that 
principle  ? 

In  the  political  and  social  world  also  we  are 
threatened  with  insincerity  on  account  of  the 
encroachment  of  the  past  upon  the  present.  It 
is  clear,  in  the  first  place,  that  there  are  around 
us  to-day  large  numbers  of  laws,  institutions,  and 
ideas  which  have  no  root  in  our  own  time,  yet 
they  are  maintained  as  our  own,  and  they  do 
a  great  deal  of  harm.  Collectively  they  threaten 
to  drag  life  down  to  a  condition  of  semi-animation 
and  half-hearted  conviction.  The  consequences 
of  this  are  particularly  grave  because  the  nine- 
teenth and  twentieth  centuries  have,  as  a  fact, 
brought  about  great  changes  in  social  and  political 
matters.    Such  is  the  confusion  that  the  past  often 


AFFIRMATION   OF  THE   IDEAL       53 

hides  the  present  from  us.  We  see  things  in  the 
light  of  another  age,  and  our  own  life  is  thus 
enfeebled.  I  do  not  speak  merely  of  earlier  years, 
but  of  our  own  time,  for  we  Germans  show  our- 
selves in  many  ways  incompetent  to  bring  out 
the  full  force  of  life  and  meet  the  demands  of  our 
own  time.  We  live  at  far  too  slow  a  pace,  and 
we  let  valuable  opportunities  slip  by.  We  have 
only  to  recall  the  long  refusal  of  the  Prussian 
Government  to  grant  a  just  suffrage  !  Did  we 
not  see  the  great  political  and  economic  changes 
that  were  taking  place  all  round  us  ?  Did  we 
not  see  the  injustice  and  the  danger  of  the  existing 
order  ?  We  did,  and  we  did  not.  We  were  too 
sluggish  to  overcome  the  difficulties  and  grant 
the  present  its  rights.  We  looked  upon  Austria, 
also,  and  treated  it  in  the  light  of  the  past,  in  the 
glory  of  its  earlier  ages.  We  did  not  observe  the 
mighty  changes  that  the  rise  and  division  of 
nationalities  had  involved.  Every  journey  that 
we  made  to  Prague,  Cracow,  and  Pesth  brought 
them  before  us,  but  the  mental  eyes  of  our  states- 
men were  closed  against  them.  So  we  failed  to 
see  how  frail  was  the  structure  on  which  we  laid 
the  weight  of  our  foreign  policy  and  our  fate. 
Socialism  is  on  its  guard  against  this  mental  blind- 
ness. It  will  change  the  entire  current  of  the 
movement  and  keep  life  entirely  to  the  present. 
We  have,  moreover,  been  far  too  much  disposed 


54  SOCIALISM  :   AN  ANALYSIS 

to  let  the  state  of  civilisation  pass  over  us  like 
some  uncontrollable   fate.     Our  intellectual  life  is 
made  up  of  a  number  of  different  elements  :  Greek, 
Roman,  Teutonic,  Christian,  medieval  and  modern 
are  all  blended  in  it.     We  live  on  the  past.     But 
we   do   not   sufficiently   attempt   to   make   out   of 
it  all  a  superior  and  comprehensive  present,  and 
to  give  this  its  proper  place  in  history.      Hence 
our  culture  has  been  far  too  much  a  mere  matter 
of  learning,  instead  of  being  a  practical  idealism 
of  man  and  the  spirit.      We  take  a  momentary 
situation  as  definitive  and  mould  our  conduct  by 
it.     We  often  mistake  the  conditions  under  which 
the  spiritual  movement  was  required.     It  was,  for 
instance,  a  particular  situation  that  gave  rise  to 
the  classical  life  of  Germany.     An  important  ele- 
ment in  it  was  the  close  association  of  German 
and  Greek  life.      In  Greek  life  men  then  saw  a 
clarified  picture  of  their  own  aims.     The  Greeks 
seemed  to  them  to  be  the  finest  representatives 
of  real  humanity   and   pure  beauty.      But  ought 
we  to  forget  the  animating  bond  that  made  the 
union  of  the  two  cultures  so  fruitful  ?     Ought  we 
to  entrust  for  ever  the  control  of  our  universities 
to  those  gifted   humanists  of   long  ago,  and  con- 
tinue   to    draw    up    our    educational    schemes    on 
their  ideas  ? 

The  hindrances  to  the  freshness  and  originality 
of  our  life  from  such  a  state  of  things  are  visible 


AFFIRMATION   OF   THE   IDEAL       55 

everywhere.    We  take  a  particular  pride  in  German 
thoroughness,  but  this  may  easily  become  a  weak- 
ness  by   causing  us   to   be   slow   and   meticulous. 
We  like  to  load  our  ship  with  a  good  deal  of  ballast, 
and  in  this  way  we  cut  down  the  speed.     How 
much,   for  instance,   could  a  genius  like  Leibnitz 
not  have  done  for  the  race  and  his  people  if  he 
had  not  obscured  the  chief  points  of  his  system 
with  so  many  additions  ?     We  are  eager  to  put 
our   life   upon   a   broad   and    solid    foundation   of 
historical  culture,   but  we  often  devote  ourselves 
to  a  mere  historical  erudition  which  confuses  life 
and  knowledge,  and  makes  one's  own  view  merely 
an  appendage  to  other  people's  opinions.     There 
is  still  truth  in  the  saying  of  Mme.  de  Stael,  that 
the    German    is    at    home    everywhere    except    in 
his   own   house ;    that   he  is   acquainted   with   all 
periods   except   the    present.      In    the    eighteenth 
century    men's    minds    were    narrower,    but    their 
thoughts  were  clearer  and  stronger.    They  thought 
in  sharp     antitheses,  whereas  the  German  is  too 
apt  to    be  content  with    an  easy-going  "  this    as 
well  as  that." 

In  view  of  all  this  it  is  significant  that  Socialism 
entirely  discards  the  burden  of  history  and  entrusts 
life  to  the  immediate  present.  It  says,  with 
Paracelsus,  the  founder  of  modern  medicine  :  "  Of 
what  use  is  the  rain  that  fell  a  thousand  years 
ago  ?    Only  that  which  falls  now  is  of  any  service 


56  SOCIALISM  :   AN   ANALYSIS 

to  us.  What  good  was  the  sunshine  of  a  thousand 
years  ago  to  this  year  ?  "  He  accordingly  demands 
a  thorough  revision  of  our  whole  culture,  a  reso- 
lute and  unealculating  preference  of  all  that  the 
present  affords  and  requires,  so  that  the  world 
may  be  our  own  possession,  and  not  belong  to 
others. 

Since  Socialism  aims  at  this  vitalisation  and 
rejuvenescence,  it  naturally  turns  in  the  first 
place  to  the  rising  generation  and  seeks  to  win 
its  allegiance.  The  old  may  have  the  qualities 
of  wisdom,  experience,  and  prudence,  but  Socialism 
turns  rather  to  the  young,  who  are  nearer  to  the 
sources  of  life,  and  seem  to  have  more  powerful 
and  more  original  ideas.  Hence  it  seems  so  impor- 
tant to  have  their  support  and  co-operation.  The 
age-limit  is  brought  forward  as  much  as  possible, 
and  the  young  are  brought  into  their  counsels. 
In  all  this  there  is  a  firm  belief  in  an  unceasing 
progress  of  the  human  race.  All  the  glories  of 
the  past  pale  beside  the  ideals  and  hopes  of  the 
future.  The  great  problem  is  the  rejuvenation 
of  the  race  and  the  expulsion  of  all  insincerity 
from  the  minds  of  men  and  from  the  institutions 
of  our  collective  life.  We  shall  have  to  consider 
these  matters  later,  but  there  is  an  undeniable 
truth  in  the  saying  :  whoever  has  the  young  has 
the  future. 


AFFIRMATION   OF   THE   IDEAL        57 

(d)  The  Struggle  Against  Inequality. 

In  the  problem  of  equality  we  have,  simul- 
taneously with  the  struggle  between  past  and 
present,  a  struggle  between  the  demands  of  reason 
and  the  actual  human  condition.  Here  again 
there  is  question,  not  of  a  few  particular  defects 
and  shortcomings,  but  of  a  radical  change  in  the 
process  of  life.  In  this  respect  Socialism  owes 
its  power  to  the  fact  that  it  is  the  final  term  of 
a  struggle  that  has  lasted  a  thousand  years,  and 
it  raises  this  struggle  to  the  rank  of  a  paramount 
and  general  issue.  The  claim  of  equality,  or  of 
the  equal  treatment  of  all  who  contribute  to  life, 
is  based  upon  the  conviction  that  inequality  means 
injustice,  and  that  this  injustice  is  intolerable  to 
any  fully  awakened  intelligence.  Here  more  than 
anywhere  else  the  Socialist  system  assumes  the 
character  of  an  ethical  idealism,  since  it  pursues 
a  demand  of  reason  to  its  ultimate  consequences, 
affirms  these  against  the  most  obstinate  resistance 
of  experience,  and  makes  everything  subordinate 
to  it.  And  this  claim  of  equality  and  justice  does 
not  apply  merely  to  all  individuals,  but  to  every 
aspect  of  life  ;  they  are  all  to  be  regulated  in  the 
sense  of  complete  equality. 

Here  it  is  impossible  not  to  recognise  a  serious 
strain.  Existence  presents  the  spectacle  of  men 
who   are   extremely   unequal.      Nature   makes   us 


58  SOCIALISM  :   AN   ANALYSIS 

unequal  both  in  bodily   and   mental  endowment, 
and  civilisation  only  adds  to  the  inequalities  with 
its  increasing  discrimination.      What  can  we  say 
in  opposition  to  this  mass  of  facts  ?      We    have 
nothing  to  oppose  except  our  power  of  thought. 
Everything  depends  on  this  single  point :    on  this 
power  which  seems  so  evanescent  externally,  yet 
is    so   mighty   internally.      Upon   it   depends   the 
advance  of  an  historical  movement  that  has  already 
had  an  immense  influence,  and  continues  to  exer- 
cise it.     The  problem  has  had  a  most  interesting 
development,  especially  when  we  recall  that  there 
are  so  many  kinds  of  equality  :   religious,  rational, 
political,  socialistic,  and  Communist.     The  move- 
ment   has    passed    more   and    more   from    a   non- 
sensuous  to  a  material  form,   and   has   at  length 
deduced  social  demands  from  processes  of  thought. 
In  the  course  of  history  it  was  at  first  religion 
that  assailed  inequality.   From  the  common  relation 
of  all  men  to  God,  the  fount  of  all  life,  it  concluded 
that   all   men   were   equal.     We  need   quote   only 
the  pregnant  words  of  Luther  :    "  Though  we  are 
never  equal  before  the  world,  yet  are  we  all  equal 
before  God,  children  of  Adam,  creatures  of  God  ; 
and  every  man  is  of  the  same  value  as  any  other." 
The  idea  of  a  common  priesthood  of  the  faithful 
is   based   upon  the   same   principle.      But  as   the 
traditional  religion  drew  a  sharp  distinction  between 
this  world  and  the  next,  its  idea  of  equality  had 


AFFIRMATION   OF   THE   IDEAL       59 

no  deep  influence  in  secular  matters.  It  did,  in- 
deed, bring  about  a  certain  alleviation — it  created 
a  place  in  which  antagonisms  disappeared — but  it 
saw  no  injustice  in  inequality.  In  this  it  was 
moved  by  its  confident  expectation  of  happiness 
in  the  next  world,  in  which  there  would  be  no 
distinctions ;  in  fact,  the  poor  and  oppressed 
seemed  to  be  entitled  to  the  highest  places. 
Modern  Socialism,  however,  finds  no  consolation 
in  that  doctrine.  It  is  not  satisfied  with  an  equality 
in  hope  and  expectation. 

The  lead  of  the  historical  movement  passed 
from  religion  to  intellectual  life  ;  personal  stan- 
dards were  replaced  by  impersonal.  In  the  later 
ages  of  the  ancient  world  this  had  occurred  before, 
but  it  reached  its  height  at  the  beginning  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  It  based  its  idea  of  equality, 
not  on  a  relation  to  God,  but  on  the  reason  which 
is  inherent  in  all  men.  Even  Descartes  appealed 
to  the  equality  of  reason  in  all  men  (rationem  quod 
attinet,  quia  per  illam  solam  homines  sumus,  aequa- 
lem  in  omnibus  esse  facile  credo),  and  Fichte's  idea 
of  the  equality  of  all  that  has  human  features 
was  only  a  development  of  this. 

From  the  philosophic  world  the  idea  of  equality 
now  gradually  passed  into  the  souls  of  men,  and 
it  began  to  have  practical  influence  in  the  world. 
The  movements  which  preceded  the  French  Revo- 
lution at  first  bore  the  ensign  of  political  liberty, 


60  SOCIALISM  :  AN  ANALYSIS 

not  of  economic  equality,  but  the  idea  of  equality 
steadily  gained  ground  and  led  to  intense  agita- 
tions. It  was  now  conceived  in  two  different 
senses,  a  negative  and  a  positive.  The  negative 
as  well  as  the  positive  declared  that  all  men  were 
equal,  but  it  made  equality  consist  essentially  in 
awarding  the  same  formal  rights  to  every  indi- 
vidual, including  the  right  to  develop  by  his  own 
powers ;  the  actual  inequality  of  individuals  was 
not  disputed.  But  the  idea  in  its  positive  form 
demanded  the  complete  and  unreserved  equality 
of  all  individuals.  All  inequality  it  regarded  as 
unjust,  as  a  mere  consequence  of  external  circum- 
stances, especially  property  and  education.  It 
was  to  be  abolished  by  every  possible  means,  and 
an  absolute  equality  was  to  be  established.  During 
the  French  Revolution  the  Gironde  held  the  nega- 
tive, the  Mountain  the  positive,  conception  of 
equality.  The  final  issue  of  the  movement  was 
pure  Communism  (Babeuf).  It  was  soon  forcibly 
suppressed,  but,  as  is  well  known,  its  influence  is 
not  at  an  end. 

The  idea  of  equality  captured,  not  merely  the 
individual,  but  his  whole  frame  of  mind  and  his 
work,  and  sank  deeper  and  deeper  into  his  spirit. 
We  need  only  point  to  a  few  instances.  The  doc- 
trine of  equality  places  the  idea  of  humanity  above 
all  distinctions,  and  uses  it  as  the  standard  for 
judging  everything.    The  higher  degree  of  univer- 


AFFIRMATION   OF  THE   IDEAL       61 

sality  decides  upon  the  value  of  individual  insti- 
tutions. The  whole  of  the  race  is  preferred  to 
any  particular  nation,  and  the  whole  of  a  nation 
to  any  of  its  particular  elements.  As  a  man  derives 
his  importance  from  the  fact  that  he  belongs  to 
humanity,  all  division  into  classes  must  cease. 
The  ideal  is  a  class-less  social  order. 

This  leads  to  a  determination  to  lessen  the 
differences  between  men  as  much  as  possible,  if 
not  to  obliterate  them  altogether.  This  is  done 
in  the  life  of  the  State,  in  education,  and  in  the 
suffrage.  The  idea  of  equality  becomes  a  superior 
standard  of  value.  It  compels  us  to  avoid  every- 
thing that  places  one  man  above  another,  and  so 
lowers  a  man,  not  only  in  the  sight  of  others,  but 
in  his  own  estimation.  Great  and  small  are  thus 
knit  closely  together.  The  Germans,  for  instance, 
have  a  tendency  to  create  artificial  distinctions 
and  divide  men  into  various  classes.  This  is  bound 
to  weaken  the  consciousness  of  the  community, 
and  lessen  the  interest  of  some  in  the  whole. 
Often  in  our  distinction  between  the  schools  of 
the  people  and  the  schools  of  the  middle  class  we 
forgot  the  work  of  building  up  a  common  humanity  ; 
and  in  our  gradation  of  lower,  middle,  and  higher 
officials  we  lost  sight  of  the  general  duties  of 
officials.  The  distinction  was  carried  into  the  most 
trivial  details.  Certain  military  circles  regarded 
themselves  as  "  superior."     Even  our  universities 


62  SOCIALISM  :   AN  ANALYSIS 

were  not  ashamed  to  encourage  the  enormity  of 
a  man  calling  himself  a  Doctor  of  such  and  such 
a  place,  in  order  to  make  it  clear  that  the  older 
universities  regarded  themselves  as  superior.  Such 
facts  must  be  borne  in  mind  by  any  man  who 
wants  to  appreciate  properly  the  tremendous  power 
of  the  movement  toward  unity.  A  distinction  of 
that  kind  is  rather  political  than  pedagogical. 

There  have  been  great  changes  in  the  position 
of  the  various  classes.  Time  itself  has  gone  far 
beyond  Socialism  ;  but  the  Socialists  may  boast 
that  they  first  raised  the  matter  to  the  rank  of 
a  principle  and  developed  all  its  consequences. 

This  way  of  thinking  not  only  opposed  sharp 
distinctions  between  different  kinds  of  human 
activity,  but  it  could  not  tolerate  the  ordinary 
way  of  estimating  work.  For  thousands  of  years 
intellectual  work  and  manual  labour  have  been 
regarded  as  different  in  value.  It  seemed  to  be 
a  proof  of  idealistic  sentiment  to  put  spiritual, 
especially  intellectual,  work  far  above  physical 
and  manual.  Meantime,  however,  there  has  been 
a  considerable  change.  Even  Aristotle,  repre- 
senting the  Greek  spirit,  spoke  of  the  hand  as 
the  greatest  of  implements  ;  and  Pestalozzi  taught 
us  the  importance  of  the  hand  in  education.  In 
our  own  time  it  is  at  last  fully  recognised  how 
the  two  worlds  overlap  ;  how  all  manual  labour 
is   permeated  with   intellectual  life.     There  is  far 


AFFIRMATION   OF   THE   IDEAL       63 

more  use  of  the  mind  and  technical  skill  in  the 
ordinary  workshop,  and  the  earlier  distinction 
between  higher  and  lower  is  fast  disappearing. 
Differences  of  quality  have  been  turned  more 
and  more  into  mere  differences  of  quantity,  and 
the  sharp  distinction  that  once  existed  gives  place 
to  a  continuous  line. 

This  development  involves  a  material  change 
in  the  whole  social  order.  For  thousands  of  years 
it  had  been  customary  to  divide  humanity,  under 
various  forms,  into  a  smaller  and  a  far  larger 
half,  the  distinction  being  based  at  one  time  on 
race,  at  another  time  on  personal  freedom,  at 
another  on  property  or  education,  and  so  on. 
In  Germany  not  more  than  five  per  cent,  of  our 
youths  obtained  full  university  education.  This 
five  per  cent,  seemed  to  constitute  the  main  part 
of  our  civilisation,  and  they  set  the  standard  for 
the  education  of  the  whole  of  the  people.  Much 
was  done  to  improve  this,  it  is  true,  and  there 
was  a  good  deal  more  co-operation  of  the  various 
classes ;  but  the  fact  remained  that  the  great 
majority  were  only  imperfectly  developed,  often 
scandalously  neglected.  There  was  still  a  dis- 
tinction of  intellectual  classes  :  a  distinction  between 
the  educated  and  the  uneducated. 

The  more  earnestly  we  reflect  on  this  division 
of  humanity,  the  more  urgently  we  feel  compelled 
to  ask  whether  it  is  necessary,  and  whether  human 


64  SOCIALISM:   AN  ANALYSIS 

ingenuity  and  goodwill  cannot  make  an  end  of  it. 
This  question,  however,  raises  the  further  question 
of  the  predominance  of  the  economic  factor  and 
its   chances   of  abolishing  inequality.      The   more 
the    effort   to    secure    equality    pervades    our   life, 
the    more    painful    and    intolerable    is    the    stark 
contradiction  between  a  purely  theoretical  equality 
and  the  actual  state  of  things.     It  is  all  very  well 
for  individual  citizens  to  get  equal  rights  and  to 
be  free  to  aspire  after  all  sorts  of  material  and 
intellectual  pleasures,  but  they  must  have  a  certain 
amount    of   property    before   they    can    profit    by 
the  right.     The  man  who  has  no  property  can  do 
nothing ;     these    good    things    are    to    him    mere 
possibilities.     The  task  of  maintaining  himself  is 
full  of  care  and  danger,  and  these  things  are  bound 
to  embitter  the  souls  of  men  in  proportion  as  the 
modern  economic  development  causes  sharper  con- 
trasts than  ever.    New  York  is  the  city  of  million- 
aires,  and  their  number  increases   steadily ;     but 
it  has  also  been  established  on  medical  authority 
in  New  York  that  in  the  year  1914  five  per  cent, 
of  the  children  examined  were  underfed,  and  that 
by    the    year    1919    the    proportion   had    risen   to 
nineteen  per  cent.     Surely  such  figures  give  ground 
for    reflection !     And    the    feeling    against    earlier 
ages  on  account  of  this  state  of  things  has  grown 
stronger.    What  seemed  at  one  time  an  inevitable 
fate  is  now  regarded  as  the  culpable  work  of  human 


AFFIRMATION   OF   THE   IDEAL       C5 

institutions.       Class-differences    have    drifted    into 
class-conflicts. 

It  is  particularly  difficult  to  see  how  these  people 
without   property   can    rise    in    the    mental    scale. 
A  few  members  of  the  working  class  may  climb 
to  a  higher  level,  but  this  is  generally  due  to  some 
fortunate  chance  or  to  friendly  assistance.      This 
state   of    things    seems   not    only    unjust    to   the 
sufferers,  but  an  injury  to  the  race,  which  ought 
to  entrust  the  control  of  its  affairs  to  the  best  in 
every   class   of  the   population.     Much   has   been 
done  in  this  direction,  but  it  was  left  to  Socialism 
to  devote  its  whole  strength  to  the  problem  and 
to    replace    philanthropy    by    civic    and    national 
institutions.       Socialism    need    not    overlook    the 
difficulty  of  these  and  similar  problems.     It  can 
freely  recognise  the  limits  of  economic  possibilities. 
But  it  makes  a  considerable  difference  if  we  remain 
far  short  of  those  limits,  or  if  we  make  a  serious 
attempt  to  push  them  back  and  so  free  a  man 
from  his  guilt  as  far  as  possible. 

In  this  sense  the  idea  of  equality  is  an  urgent 
demand  of  justice,  a  triumph  of  reason  over  the 
unreason  of  human  affairs,  a  victory  of  the  whole 
race  over  the  interests  of  particular  classes  or 
individuals. 


§3 
A    COMMON    STRUCTURE 

The  claim  that  we  shall  base  our  life  entirely 
upon  the  present  and  the  demand  that  we  shall 
develop  all  forces  equally  and  unite  them  in  an 
undifferentiated  whole  constitute  a  special  type 
of  reality,  and  this  needs  only  a  firm  structure 
to  triumph  over  all  obstacles.  This  structure  is 
in  Socialism  provided  by  a  combination  of  social- 
isation and  economism.  By  this  means,  as  in  the 
earlier  proposals,  life  is  drawn  together  more 
actively  and  based  directly  upon  human  interests, 
and  thus  it  gains  in  strength,  self-consciousness, 
and  happiness.  Let  us  first  consider  socialisation, 
which  is  the  very  heart  of  the  Socialist  ideal. 


(e)  The  Demand  for  Socialisation. 

Socialisation  alone  will  give  the  Socialistic  life 
a  definite  embodiment.  It  confidently  enters  upon 
a  struggle  against  the  distraction  and  the  egoism 
of  individuals.     It  brings  the  communal  idea  out 

06 


AFFIRMATION   OF   THE   IDEAL       67 

of  the  realm  of  wishes  and  dreams,  realises  it, 
and  enables  it  to  dominate  the  whole  life  of  the 
race.  This  strongly  organised  society  will  be  the 
standard  of  all  values.  Ethical  ideas,  in  particular, 
will  be  materially  changed  when  socialisation  assigns 
them  a  fixed  aim  and  a  firm  support. 

This  socialisation  promises  considerable  gains  in 
many  ways.  In  the  first  place  the  clearer  con- 
sciousness of  purpose  and  the  linking  of  individual 
forces  which  it  brings  about  through  the  collective 
will  must  make  the  work  of  the  individual  more 
fruitful  and  rid  it  of  all  restrictions  and  friction. 
The  whole  system  will  run  more  smoothly,  super- 
fluous things  will  drop  out,  and  individual  faculties 
will  supplement  each  other  and  increase  each 
other's  productivity. 

Yet  however  valuable  this  gain  may  be,  it  is 
not  the  chief  thing.  This  is  rather  of  an  ethical 
character.  It  is  a  question  of  devising  a  new 
relation  of  man  both  to  his  fellows  and  to  the 
object  of  his  labour,  and  linking  him  more  closely 
with  them.  The  traditional  idea  of  work  makes 
a  man  think  mainly  of  his  own  profit.  It  impels 
him  to  think  first  of  all  of  himself.  There  was 
a  cogent  reason  for  this  as  long  as  the  various 
spheres  of  life  were  divided  ;  as  long  as  every 
man  had  his  own  field  or  practised  his  own  craft, 
and  enjoyed  the  fruits  of  his  own  labour.  This 
state  of  things,  however,  became  intolerable  when 


68  SOCIALISM  :   AN   ANALYSIS 

modern  labour  developed  its  divisions.     The  work 
was  now  more  and  more  detached  from  the  workers, 
and  went  its  own  way.      Under  the  lead  of  tech- 
nical science  it    brought  the  forces  of  nature  to 
an  indefinite  extent  into  the  service  of  man.     It 
made    the    individual    worker    defenceless,    as    its 
vast    industrial    aggregations    robbed    him    of   his 
independence,  while  capital  obtained  an  appalling 
power   and   forced   him   to   serve   the   designs   of 
others.     He  became  simply  a  piece  of  merchandise, 
the  value  of  which  was   settled   by  the  market. 
Thus  the  race  drifted   into  a  sharp  antithesis  of 
"  labour  and  capital,"  and    the  two  soon  proved 
irreconcilable  enemies. 

In  face  of  this  there  arose  amongst  the  workers 
the  stern  struggle  for  emancipation  which  is  one 
of  the  leading  features  of  our  time.  The  workers 
took  their  fate  into  their  own  hands,  and  in  doing 
so  they  attained  an  inner  greatness,  an  increasing 
power,  and  a  complete  independence.  But  as 
long  as  this  split  lasted,  the  worker  could  take  no 
interest  in  his  work.  However  he  applied  his 
energies,  the  work  was  alien  to  him,  in  fact  hated 
by  him.  How  this  situation  led  to  a  great  his- 
torical movement  has  been  clearly  and  acutely 
shown  by  Marx  with  the  aid  of  the  Hegelian 
dialectic.  According  to  him  the  "  capitalistic 
phase  "  means  the  first  negation  of  private  property 
based  upon  one's  own  work.     The  course  of  the 


AFFIRMATION   OF   THE   IDEAL       69 

movement  has  now  to  negate  this  negation  and 
to  bring  on  a  higher  stage  by  the  adjustment  of 
the  conflicting  elements. 

A  good  deal  of  this  is  certainly  too  dogmatic 
and  summary,  but  it  remains  an  historical  fact 
that  a  great  part  of  the  race  became  merely 
objects  and  means  of  labour,  not  independent 
subjects ;  in  order  to  become  personalities  the 
whole  existing  state  of  things  had  to  be  changed. 
Socialisation  is  the  way  to  do  this.  By  this  means 
the  worker  becomes  the  master,  instead  of  the 
servant,  of  his  work,  and  the  work  can,  through 
the  community,  attract  the  interest  of  the  worker. 
Beyond  what  is  actually  achieved,  there  is  a  closer 
union  of  sentiment,  a  solidarity  of  all  the  comrades. 
The  work  loses  the  impersonal  character  which 
they  so  bitterly  resented,  or  it  is  at  least  greatly 
modified,  when  a  man  devotes  his  whole  person- 
ality, his  whole  soul,  to  the  common  good,  and 
expresses  his  own  character  in  his  success.  We 
have  a  confident  expectation  of  a  life  that  will 
be  richer  in  love  and  comfort.  It  is  true  that 
religion  formerly  aimed  at  this  state  of  things, 
but  its  teaching  is  now  disputable  and  its  effort, 
even  where  it  succeeds,  touches  the  emotions 
rather  than  affects  the  substance  of  life. 

The  situation  thus  brought  about  by  socialisa- 
tion is  in  harmony  with  the  whole  trend  of  civili- 
sation.    For  life  everywhere  now  assumes  a  super- 


70  SOCIALISM  :   AN   ANALYSIS 

individual  and  super-national  character.  A  world- 
economy  is  developing  which  binds  the  various 
nations  closer  and  closer  together  economically. 
Our  science  spreads  over  the  whole  world,  and 
even  our  religions  mitigate,  if  they  do  not  abolish, 
their  old  antagonisms.  The  race  seeks  salvation 
more  and  more  in  communal  life,  and  arranges  its 
work  more  connectedly.  Now  is  the  time  to 
strive  earnestly  to  bring  about  the  league  of 
nations  projected  two  hundred  years  ago  by  that 
noble  philanthropist,  the  Abbe  de  Saint  Pierre 
(1713-1717),  to  make  an  end  of  war  and  its  horrible 
injuries  to  the  common  weal,  to  establish  an 
alliance  of  mutual  profit  and  friendship  between 
all  peoples.  Thus  the  humanitarian  sentiments 
inspired  by  socialisation  give  us  both  a  firm  and 
a  tangible  ground  of  hope.  Working  on  these 
ideas,  man  can  advance  along  purely  human 
lines  and  find  his  greatest  height  in  himself. 

(/)  The  Demand  for  an  Economism. 

Thus  socialisation  opens  out  a  great  prospect. 
But  have  we  the  means  to  realise  so  vast  a  plan  ? 
Will  not  the  idealism  which  we  have  described 
be  wrecked  on  the  stubbornness  of  the  material 
conditions  which  dominate  our  lives  and  work  ? 
Will  not  the  spiritual  fall  before  the  power  of  the 
material  ?     Such  a  fate  is  inevitable  unless  material 


AFFIRMATION   OF  THE   IDEAL       71 

and  spiritual  are  more  intimately  combined,  and 
reason  takes  the  lead.  This  is  to  be  secured  by 
economisation,  as  Socialism  understands  it,  which 
is  closely  connected  with  socialisation.  In  this 
there  is  to  be  a  full  recognition  of  the  overwhelming 
importance  of  the  economic  task,  but  at  the  same 
time  the  meaning  of  it  is  to  be  altered  and  ennobled. 
Let  us  see  what  the  historic  movement  has  to 
do  in  this  respect,  and  what  changes  the  lapse 
of  time  has  brought  about. 

At  first  man  was  dominated  entirely  by  the 
need  of  physical  self-preservation.  He  had  to 
wrest  his  sustenance  from  a  nature  that  was  some- 
times friendly  and  sometimes  hostile,  but  was  at 
all  events  indifferent  to  him.  It  was  only  later 
that  other  tasks  became  attractive  to  him,  and 
acquired  an  independent  value.  The  first  thing 
was,  in  the  words  of  Aristotle,  to  live  (£t}j>)  ; 
then  one  might  think  of  living  well  (evtfjv).  For 
this  it  is  necessary  for  a  civilised  people  to  follow 
a  definite  line.  As  is  well  known,  Greek  culture 
has  in  this  respect  had  a  profound  influence  on  us  ; 
Aristotle  especially  has  clearly  formulated  the  ideal 
that  has  dominated  the  last  two  thousand  years. 
He  distinguished  plainly  between  the  useful,  which 
is  concerned  only  with  self-preservation,  and  the 
beautiful,  which  gives  life  value  and  joy.  The 
main  thing  here  seemed  to  be  to  make  the  whole 
range  of  life  active,   yet  not  to  leave  particular 


72  SOCIALISM  :   AN  ANALYSIS 

achievements  side  by  side,  but  to  unite  them  all 
in  a  collective  work  which  should  have  for  its 
aim  the  complete  satisfaction,  the  happiness 
(evScu/xovta),  of  all. 

This  ideal  comprises  two  elements  :  the  sub- 
stantial content  and  the  conditions  of  life.  The 
former  consists  in  the  inner  excellence,  whilst  the 
external  advantages  are,  not  ends  in  themselves, 
but  conditions,  which  take  their  value  from  the 
life-content.  At  the  same  time  it  assigns  them 
a  strict  limit,  and  this  limit  a  rational  life  which 
is  to  afford  genuine  happiness  must  not  transgress. 
This  clear  distinction  between  end  and  means 
applied  also  to  the  ideal  society  which  Aristotle, 
in  conformity  with  Greek  ideas,  conceives  as  a 
narrowly  limited  City-State  or  communal  State. 
As  this  State  depends  on  the  individuals,  the 
aims  of  the  State  are  in  complete  harmony  with 
those  of  the  individuals.  Neither  individual  nor 
community  must  make  concern  about  material 
things  its  chief  business.  The  indefinite  craving 
of  the  individual  is  a  lower  impulse  that  must  be 
checked  in  every  way,  and  all  hunting  after 
money  for  its  own  sake  must  be  branded  a  danger- 
ous aberration.  And  as  this  ideal  regards  economic 
activity  merely  as  a  means  to  higher  ends,  it  does 
not  bring  the  two  together  in  one  whole  and  cannot 
recognise  any  particular  economic  legislation. 

This    distinction    passed    on    to    the    Christian 


AFFIRMATION   OF   THE   IDEAL       78 

world.  Religion  brought  about  a  good  deal  of 
improvement  and  mitigation  of  the  old  conditions, 
but  the  teaching  of  Aristotle  remained  the  chief 
guide,  and  his  attack  upon  usury  was  transplanted 
into  Christian  soil  by  Lactantius.  The  chief 
concern  now,  however,  was  the  soul ;  material 
possessions  were  deemed  to  be  of  much  inferior 
value.  There  was  much  in  this  that  restricted 
and  caused  a  decay  of  economic  life.  It  was 
divided  into  particular  transactions  which  had  no 
common  aim.  Labour  was  confined  within  narrow 
channels,  and  had  very  limited  aims,  so  that  pro- 
duction on  a  large  scale  ceased,  and  great  wealth 
became  impossible.  The  individual  was  weak,  and 
needed  an  economic  organisation  to  protect  him, 
as  the  Guilds  did.  The  mainspring  of  trade  was 
individual  covetousness,  and  this  was  enough  of 
itself  to  restrict  the  full  recognition  of  economic 
activity.  Thus  medieval  life  had  narrow  limits. 
Even  in  this  respect  its  world  was  supposed  to  be 
settled  once  for  all.  There  was  no  impulse  to 
bring  about  large  changes  or  to  set  life  flowing  in 
a  continuous  stream. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  close  of  the  Middle 
Ages  witnessed  a  great  change.  We  are,  in  fact, 
still  in  the  midst  of  the  movement  that  was  then 
initiated.  There  was,  in  the  first  place,  a  new 
impulse  given  to  life  and  a  technical  improvement 
of  the  economic  life.     The  fact  that  life  won  a 


74  SOCIALISM  :   AN  ANALYSIS 

larger  control  of  and  action  upon  the  world  was 
bound  to  modify  the  estimate  of  the  value  of 
material  possessions.  From  this  point  onward  they 
ceased  to  be  regarded  as  mere  means  and  incidental 
things,  and  they  became  integral  parts  of  life. 
The  distinction  between  means  and  end  is  found 
to  be  unsatisfactory  and  not  in  accord  with  the 
realities  of  life.  The  inner  and  outer  must  rather 
be  in  a  condition  of  reciprocity.  And  as  the 
belief  in  the  possibility  of  an  indefinite  enrichment 
of  life  makes  greater  headway  against  the  traditional 
unprogressive  idea,  it  is  felt  that  material  posses- 
sions must  not  merely  give  occupation  to  our 
existing  powers ;  they  must  help  to  make  life 
larger,  stronger,  and  happier.  They  become  so 
many  levers  for  lifting  a  dull  existence  out  of 
its  rut  and  setting  it  in  motion.  This  leads  to  a 
change  in  fundamental  ideas.  Hitherto  the  beauti- 
ful had  been  considered  far  superior  to  the  useful, 
but  the  useful  is  now  cleansed  of  the  stain  that 
it  was  supposed  to  have ;  it  is  ennobled  and 
becomes  a  spur  to  action.  Life  as  a  fixed  thing 
gives  place  to  an  idea  of  indefinite  increase  of 
strength ;  its  increasing  rise  becomes  a  further 
incentive  to  effort.  Men  now  propose  to  exploit 
all  resources,  open  out  every  possibility,  transform 
life  more  and  more  from  a  small  enclosed  province 
into  a  ceaselessly  advancing  evolution. 

But  the  complexion  of  this  vital  order  of  power 


AFFIRMATION   OF   THE   IDEAL       75 

and  progress  has  materially  changed  in  the  course 
of  modern  times.  It  has  passed  more  and  more 
from  the  immaterial,  the  ideal,  to  the  material 
and  tangible.  The  intellectual  and  speculative 
activity  which  opened  the  modern  phase  becomes 
to  an  increasing  extent  a  mere  means  of  compelling 
the  material  world  to  serve  man's  designs.  The 
spiritual  was  at  first  an  independent  value,  but  it 
is  drawn  into  closer  relation  to  life.  The  tradi- 
tional idealism  gives  place  to  a  resolute  realism. 
This  is,  doubtless,  accompanied,  even  pervaded, 
by  standards  of  value,  but  its  chief  concern  is 
the  visible  world. 

This  state  of  things  gives  economic  life  a  pre- 
ponderance in  man's  aims  and  conduct.  A  man 
will  concern  himself  only  about  what  can  claim 
full  reality ;  all  enterprise  must  confine  itself  to 
this.  The  older  mode  of  life  had  greatly  de- 
preciated economic  life ;  the  new  made  it  the 
very  heart  of  things.  Individual  thinkers  put  it 
differently,  and  adopted  different  lines,  but  behind 
them  all  was  the  leading  characteristic  of  the  time, 
and  it  gave  an  immense  productive  power  to 
thought.  Adam  Smith  very  clearly  showed  that 
economic  aims,  with  their  concentration  upon  self- 
maintenance,  entirely  dominated  the  individual, 
and  gave  a  peculiar  complexion  even  to  his  work 
in  the  spiritual  provinces  of  life — religion,  education, 
etc. — but    Socialism    carried   this    beyond    the   in- 


76  SOCIALISM  :   AN  ANALYSIS 

dividual  and  extended  it  to  the  general  movement 
of  the  world.  In  this  way  it  founded  a  special 
philosophy  of  history  (Engels)  which  might  very 
well  be  called  economic  or  materialistic.  It  pur- 
ports to  have  discovered  that  economic  interests 
are  the  mainsprings  of  the  historical  movement 
and  of  all  progress  ;  that  it  is  not  ideas,  as  inde- 
pendent forces,  but  the  interests  of  life,  which 
control  the  whole.  This  not  only  gave  us  a  new 
picture  of  history,  and  opened  out  a  good  deal  of 
surprising  insight  into  the  relations  between  its 
various  processes.  It  also  materially  improved 
conduct,  because  it  plainly  indicated  and  strength- 
ened the  chief  roots  of  conduct.  Here,  quite 
clearly,  appearance  yields  to  reality  :  imagination 
is  replaced  by  the  force  of  real  powers. 

Socialism  wholeheartedly  adopts  this  historical 
movement.  Its  life  has  a  realistic  and  empirical 
character.  It  confines  itself  to  the  world  that  is 
directly  accessible  to  us.  But  it  changes  the 
situation  considerably  because,  while  it  fully 
recognises  the  preponderance  of  the  economic  ele- 
ment, it  transfers  it  from  the  individuals  and 
makes  it  the  business  of  the  whole  race.  In  this 
way  the  material  is  ennobled  and  moralised  ;  the 
immaterial  is  strengthened.  The  material  may 
be  the  starting  point,  even  the  centre,  but'  it  is 
capable  of  further  development.  The  two  elements 
combine,   as  soul  and  body  do,  to  form  a  single 


AFFIRMATION   OF   THE   IDEAL        77 

and    complete    reality    which    promises    to    meet 
the   wishes   of  all.     The  merciless   struggle   of  in- 
dividuals can  thus  be  transformed  by  socialisation 
into  a  lofty  concern  for    the  common  weal :    in- 
disputable   aims    can    be    disentangled    from    the 
chaos   of  conflicting   individual   designs.     In   this 
light   material   things   are   seen   to   be   two-edged 
weapons  ;   they  may  serve  a  good  or  a  bad  purpose 
according  to   the   use   made   of  them.     They   are 
not  used  for  good  by  the  individual  with  a  sub- 
jective   intention,    however    high-minded    he    may 
be,  but  must  be  employed  collectively  on  Socialist 
lines.     This  is  the  way  to  settle  the  old  conflict 
and  to  make  a  harmonious  whole  of  life. 

Socialism   feels   that   in   these   ideals   it   is   far 
superior    to    the    traditional    systems.     The    older 
order  wished  to  render  collective  service,    but  it 
could  not  win  the  co-operation  of  individuals,  and 
there  was  therefore  a  painful  clash  between  the 
collective    aims    and    the    designs    of   individuals. 
There  was  no  inner  truth  in  the  body  as  a  whole, 
and  it  fell  into  a  psychic  dualism.     This  antagon- 
ism was  abolished  by  the  modern  system  by  making 
life    fluid    once    more    and    presenting    illimitable 
possibilities  to  it,  but  the  forces  which  had  been 
unchained   enter   into   a   new   antagonism   in   the 
course  of  time,  and  we  get  the  antithesis  of  work 
and  soul  which  at  present  rends  our  life.     Socialism 
promises    to    end    the    confusion    by    completely 


78  SOCIALISM  :   AN   ANALYSIS 

reconciling  the  aim  of  the  whole  with  the  instincts 
of  individuals,  by  teaching  each  to  regard  the 
whole  as  his  business  and  his  work ;  and  at  the 
same  time  it  blends  the  sensuous  and  the  spiritual 
into  a  common  life  under  the  lead  of  economic 
interests.  The  material  is  no  longer  to  be  regarded 
in  our  philosophy  of  life  as  something  inferior  and 
contemptible.  Man  ennobles  it,  and  raises  the 
value  of  reality,  by  associating  it  inseparably  with 
the  common  good.  By  the  co-operation  of  the 
two  aspects  he  brings  about  a  Monism  of  life 
which  is  superior  to  the  antithesis  of  end  and 
means,  and  he  transforms  the  whole  of  reality 
into  a  progressive  evolution.  Thus  all  movements 
are  made  to  converge  to  one  dominating  central 
point. 

Looking  back  on  all  that  we  have  so  far  seen, 
we  realise  that  Socialism  means  a  turning  point 
such  as  the  world  never  saw  before.  It  is  not 
that  particular  things  are  changed,  but  the  entire 
process  of  life  has  departed  from  the  traditional 
model.  A  new  epoch  has  been  opened  in  history. 
The  ideal  has  even  changed  our  conceptions,  and 
involved  very  material  trans  valuations  of  values. 
This  has,  of  course,  not  been  done  suddenly. 
Socialism  derived  its  strength  largely  from  the 
fact  that  modern  times  as  a  whole  had  experienced 
great  changes  ;  and  these  changes  were  gradual, 
and  often  associated  with  reactions.     The  specific 


AFFIRMATION   OF   THE   IDEAL       79 

work  of  Socialism  was  that  it  raised  these  partial 
changes  to  the  position  of  a  whole  and  a  matter 
of  principle,  and  it  boldly  deduced  the  logical 
conclusions.  It  takes  us  back  to  the  simple, 
elementary,  and  immediate,  yet  transforms  the 
whole,  and  gives  life  a  predominant  character  of 
truth  and  reality,  and  a  reality  that  can  be  fully 
developed  only  on  its  own  lines. 

In  the  first  place  this  ideal  of  life  demands  a 
concentration  of  effort  under  the  guidance  of  a 
common  goal ;  it  will  have  no  breaking  up  into 
fragments.  It  strives  to  attain  this  goal  in  spite 
of  all  obstacles,  and  this  of  itself  furnishes  a 
common  standard  of  value.  A  further  develop- 
ment is  yielded  by  the  idea  of  humanity  in  its 
social  form.  The  relation  to  the  universe  is  set 
aside,  and  man  is  thrown  upon  his  own  resources. 
This  leads  to  a  new  type  of  life  in  every  branch, 
involving  ever  new  demands,  and  all  taken  together 
make  up  a  new  sort  of  reality.  This  in  turn  leads 
to  a  new  frame  of  mind  and  new  standards  of 
value.  The  centre  of  gravity  is  placed  in  the 
present  time,  and  the  past  is  as  far  as  possible 
converted  into  the  present.  The  pulse  of  life 
beats  faster.  All  separation  of  classes  must  be 
abandoned  as  far  as  possible,  and  all  men  be 
treated  on  a  basis  of  equality.  Here  again  we 
have  to  bring  reality  as  near  as  we  can  to  man 
and  his  sentiments.      We  have,  in  fine,  just  seen 


80  SOCIALISM  :   AN  ANALYSIS 

how  the  structure  of  the  whole  is  completed  by  a 
combination  of  socialisation  and  economism. 

It  is  characteristic  of  this  system  that  it  appeals 
to  the  world  of  facts,  yet  has  inspired  a  great 
movement.  That  could  not  be  done  without  re- 
jecting a  good  many  outworn  and  effete  things 
that  had  sheltered  under  the  protection  of  the 
past.  Naturally,  this  negative  feature  was  at 
first  very  much  in  the  foreground,  but  a  close 
examination  of  the  matter  will  show  that  the 
negation  is  in  the  interest  of  an  affirmation.  There 
is  much  drowsiness  to  be  shaken,  much  improve- 
ment to  be  made,  much  misery  to  be  relieved. 
There  is  still  full  truth  in  the  words  of  Goethe  : 

"  The  load  of  misery  and  pain  yet  wrings 
The  hearts  of  men  in  many  a  quiet  home. 
Outcast  they  seem — fortune  hath  cast  them  out." 

But  a  new  stream  of  life  is  flowing.  It  means  a 
vigorous  concentration,  a  greater  animation,  of  the 
whole  human  condition.  It  combines  a  firm  belief 
in  the  power  of  man,  a  confident  hope  of  a  better 
future  for  the  race,  an  untiring  zeal  for  society, 
a  self-sacrificing  love  of  one's  fellows.  Can  we 
wonder  that  this  ideal  spurns  the  thought  of 
resignation,  or  that  it  stirs  the  souls  of  men, 
especially  the  men  who  suffer  oppression  and 
want  ? 


A   VIEW 

OF  LIFE 

AS   A   WHOLE 


6 


CHAPTER   III 

A   VIEW   OF  LIFE 
AS  A  WHOLE 

So  far  we  have  allowed  the  Socialist  ideal  to 
speak  for  itself  and  to  instruct  us  as  to  its  aims. 
That  is  the  only  way  to  understand  properly 
both  its  affirmation  and  its  negation.  We  have 
now  to  form  our  own  opinion  on  it,  and  to  take 
up  a  clear  position  in  regard  to  what  we  have 
seen.  For  this  purpose  we  require  a  firm  standard 
of  judgment,  as  otherwise  the  whole  matter  is 
left  to  parties  and  individuals  with  their  differ- 
ences and  antagonisms  ;  and  we  have  experience 
enough  to-day  of  the  helpless  and  intolerable 
position  in  which  that  puts  us.  But  where  shall 
we  find  this  standard  if  not  in  man  himself  ? 
Only  human  nature  in  the  entirety  of  its  develop- 
ment can  rescue  us  from  the  chances  and  changes 
of  opinion  and  enable  us  to  form  an  independent 
judgment  upon  what  is  occurring  in  and  around 
us.  But  the  very  thing  which  promises  to  help 
us   is   at   once   seen   to   be   itself  a   problem   that 

88 


84  SOCIALISM  :   AN   ANALYSIS 

urgently  requires  examination.  We  can  easily  see 
that  the  life  of  man  does  not  run  on  a  single 
plane.  It  has  various  strata  and  different  aims. 
To  understand  these  strata  satisfactorily  and 
plainly  distinguish  between  them  is  an  essential 
condition  of  clearing  up  our  own  ideas  and  form- 
ing an  opinion  upon  the  ideal  of  life.  And  when 
we  consider  this  series  of  strata,  we  see  that 
it  is  only  in  their  graduation  that  we  have  a 
firm  standard  for  judging  human  life  and  its 
conditions.  There  are  three  such  stages :  the 
fundamental  stratum,  the  condition  of  human 
life,  and  the  historical  movement. 


(a)  The  Fundamental  Stratum. 

We  start  from  the  fundamental  idea  of  life 
as  it  is  common  to  man  and  all  other  living 
creatures.  Life  is  a  great  fact,  and  at  the  same 
time  a  great  riddle  that  defies  every  attempt 
to  solve  it.  The  chief  point  that  we  have  to 
consider  here  is  the  appearance  of  various  stages 
in  it.  There  is  such  a  thing  as  a  life  bound  up 
with  nature  and  a  life  of  spontaneous  activity. 
The  former  is  part  of  the  chain  of  causation 
which  is  reproduced  in  our  experience ;  the  latter 
is  revealed  in  man  alone,  having  an  activity  of 
its  own  and  opening  out  new  relations  to  man. 
The    one    we    call    nature,    the    other    spirit    or 


LIFE   AS   A   WHOLE  85 

the  spiritual  world  :  the  one  means  for  us  mere 
existence,  the  other  a  world  of  action.  The 
spiritual  world  clearly  presupposes  existence  as 
its  foundation,  and  rises  above  it  as  a  higher 
stage. 

These  two  categories  have  very  different  features. 
Existence  consists  of  separate  elements  which 
are  merely  connected  externally  with  each  other. 
The  world  of  jiction,  on  the  contrary,  produces 
inner  connections.  Its  elements  are  members  of 
a  whole  which  confers  on  them  a  characteristic 
life.  Thus  the  standards  of  value  of  the  two- 
stages  are  quite  different.  In  the  one  case  the 
elements  merely  attract  and  repel  each  other, 
and  their  work  is  confined  to  a  reciprocal  ex- 
change of  energy.  In  the  other  life  is  an  inde- 
pendent province ;  it  can  create  a  content  and 
engender  a  self-sufficiency. 

This  self-sufficiency  and  creation  of  a  content 
involve  certain  demands.  They  require  in  the 
self-sufficiency  a  certain  discrimination,  a  dis- 
tinction between  object  and  state.  There  thus 
arises  an  antithesis  which  is  both  to  be  con- 
trolled and  to  be  retained,  and  it  will  then  com- 
municate an  inward  movement  to  life.  It  is 
only  by  overcoming  this  cleavage  that  life  can 
be  complete  in  itself,  be  orientated  toward  itself, 
engage  its  own  attention,  and  take  itself  for  its 
task  and  work.     That  this  movement  is   effected 


86  SOCIALISM  :   AN   ANALYSIS 

by  a  cleavage  and  the  maintenance  thereof  is 
seen,  not  only  by  a  thorough  examination  of 
the  whole  situation,  but  from  the  fact  that  it 
constitutes  the  two  forces,  truth  and  freedom, 
the  great  agencies  of  our  effort  and  makes  them 
inseparable  companions.  From  this  arises  a  char- 
acteristic feature  of  life  with  which  no  enterprise 
can  dispense  without  losing  its  spiritual  character. 

(b)  The  Vital  Condition  of  Mankind. 

But  beyond  this  fundamental  character  and 
its  maintenance  human  life  exhibits  a  special 
state.  It  contains  acute  contradictions  which  must 
not  be  treated  as  final,  but  which  press  us  on 
urgently  to  further  work ;  though  in  this  they 
merely  evince  the  incompleteness  of  the  whole 
situation. 

The  distinction  between  nature  and  spirit,  ex- 
istence and  a  world  of  action,  is  of  the  essential 
structure  of  life ;  but  beyond  this  distinction 
there  appears  a  contradiction  between  the  power 
and  the  validity  of  the  two.  The  spiritual  pur- 
ports to  be  the  higher,  not  merely  in  the  thoughts 
and  hearts  of  men,  but  in  its  creation  of  special 
standards  and  values,  even  of  an  independent 
reality.  In  our  world,  however,  it  is  inseparably 
bound  up  with  nature,  and  shares  its  fortunes. 
The   order   of  nature   treats   the   conduct   of  the 


LIFE   AS   A   WHOLE  87 

spiritual  being  as  a  matter  of  complete  indif- 
ference, and  the  various  phases  of  life  are 
measured  entirely  according  to  the  demands  of 
nature.  Man  may  strive  to  give  a  certain  power 
to  the  spiritual  in  his  own  province,  but,  how- 
ever eager  the  will,  there  are  limits  fixed.  What 
purports  to  be  higher  is  permanently  subject 
to  the  power  of  nature.  Great  changes  in  the 
material  world  seem  to  put  an  end  to  the 
spiritual,  and  seem  to  make  of  it  merely  a 
concomitant  phenomenon.  Nevertheless  it  is  im- 
possible for  the  human  effort  to  sacrifice  the 
independence  and  intrinsic  value  of  the  spiritual 
life  without  destroying  it  at  its  roots.  How  shall 
we  escape  this  contradiction  which  distracts  our 
lives  ? 

To  this  contradiction  between  nature  and  spirit 
we  must  add  an  even  greater  within  the  psychic 
life  itself.  The  psychic  life  exhibits  many  move- 
ments and  tendencies,  and  these  tendencies  are 
frequently  divergent  from  and  contradictory  to 
each  other.  The  vital  instinct  may  be  opposed 
to  the  higher  aim.  Frightful  perversions,  not 
merely  in  individuals,  but  in  the  whole  race, 
are  not  only  possible,  but  actual  facts.  We  thus 
get  the  problem  of  evil.  On  the  one  hand  it 
may  be  held  to  prove  an  independence  of  life, 
but  on  the  other  hand  it  means  a  lamentable 
obstruction    and    confusion.     Human    life    seems, 


88  SOCIALISM  :   AN   ANALYSIS 

not  merelv  in  the  theories  of  thinkers,  but  in 
its  own  development  to  drift  into  a  fierce  struggle 
against  itself.  How  shall  we  extricate  ourselves 
from  this  contradiction  ? 

This  profound  confusion  shows  that  our  human 
manner  of  life  is  not  the  whole  of  reality,  but 
a  special  category  of  it  in  a  special  condition. 
It  must  be  related  to  something  larger,  and  only 
in  virtue  of  this  can  it  possess  any  meaning  and 
derive  the  necessary  power.  Religion  adopts  this 
way.  It  leads  beyond  a  special  province  to  a 
new  stage  of  life  ;  a  stage  that  transcends  these 
contradictions  and  opens  out  new  contents  and 
new  forces.  Hence  the  whole  of  reality  which 
is  accessible  to  men  falls  into  three  stages :  a 
fundamental  stage,  a  stage  of  conflict,  and  a 
stage  of  victorious  spirituality.  The  first  is  the 
pre-requisite  and  foundation  of  all  spirituality  ;  the 
second  is  the  chief  theatre  of  man's  activity ; 
the  third  completes  the  scheme  and  promises 
the  power  to  overcome.  It  is  this  last  which 
alone  furnishes  human  life  with  its  indispensable 
support  and  an  indisputable  goal.  But  this  leads 
to  a  considerable  strain,  as  the  victorious  spirituality 
seeks  complete  independence  and  intrinsic  value, 
whilst  the  province  of  work  shows  us  spirituality 
only  in  a  bound  condition.  This  prompts  the 
question  which  of  them  it  is  that  mainly  decides 
the    character    of   our    world.     Will    there    be    an 


LIFE   AS   A   WHOLE  89 

independent  stage  of  spirituality  superior  to  the 
world,  or  will  man  never  pass  beyond  the  con- 
dition of  severe  and  unceasing  conflict  ? 

Our  human  realm  exhibits  this  independent 
spirituality,  this  complete  self-sufficiency  of  life, 
only  in  certain  features,  but  it  sufficiently  shows 
that  this  stage  is  active  in  us,  and  that  it  is  wholly 
necessary  for  the  spiritual  self-preservation  of 
humanity.  This  is  done  in  two  ways :  by  the 
construction  of  a  personality  superior  to  and 
embracing  the  world  and  by  the  opening  of  a 
kingdom  of  God  which  essentially  transcends  the 
entire  political  and  social  order.  But  however 
unmistakable  may  be  the  action  of  this  inde- 
pendent spirituality,  its  actual  shape  is  deter- 
mined by  the  forms  and  limits  of  the  world  of 
work.  Hence  a  man  has  to  be  content  with 
figures  of  speech  and  suggestions,  and  the  heart 
needs  a  heroism  that  confidentlv  sustains  its 
affirmation  in  spite  of  all  contradiction.  All  these 
things  exhibit  the  human  condition  in  great  achieve- 
ments, but  under  very  severe  restrictions.  There 
is  clearly  a  pervasive  movement  of  the  whole, 
but  the  condition  of  the  world  docs  not  entirely 
pass  into  this  movement.  There  is  an  unques- 
tionable irrationality  in  reality.  Every  theory 
of  life  must  take  that  into  account. 

A  further  stage  of  the  spiritual  life  arises  with 
the  appearance  of  history,  which  again  is  peculiar 


90  SOCIALISM:  AN  ANALYSIS 

to  man.  We  may  distinguish  between  passive 
and  active  history :  the  passive  history  which 
merely  records  what  happens  to  man,  the  active 
history  which  has  to  do  with  what  he,  as  a 
member  of  a  world  of  action,  makes  of  things 
and  of  himself.  The  combination  of  the  two  con- 
stitutes human  history  proper,  in  which  actions 
and  events,  deliberate  doings  and  mere  happen- 
ings, are  closely  interwoven ;  but  the  driving 
force  is  in  the  deliberate  actions.  They  have 
a  special  character.  They  may  do  nothing  for 
the  whole  if  they  are  mere  individual  achieve- 
ments ;  or  they  may  not  be  able  to  pass  beyond 
certain  narrow  limits  without  disclosing  at  once 
greater  and  firmer  connections  and  creating  inde- 
pendent provinces  and  realities  of  life.  These 
vital  connections  again  have  a  special  history. 
They  not  only  develop  an  enduring  character, 
but  they  have  to  struggle  vigorously  against  re- 
sistance, and  thev  can  onlv  become  full  realities 
after  further  development  and  self-experience.  In 
the  human  field,  moreover,  they  are  apt  to  rise 
and  decay,  and  they  relate  a  man  in  various 
ways  to  his  proper  task.  At  first  conduct  is 
greatly  influenced  by  a  higher  range  of  facts  and 
connections,  such  as  environment,  tradition,  and 
the  conditions  of  life.  It  is  only  in  the  course  of 
time  that  individuals  make  themselves  completely 
independent  of  these,  and  life  as  a  whole  reaches 


LIFE   AS   A   WHOLE  91 

its  highest  point.  Later,  individuals  obtain  com- 
plete control,  and  they,  in  the  main,  fashion  the 
province  of  life  according  to  their  own  ideas  and 
aims.  Thus  in  spiritual  productiveness  we  may 
distinguish  an  objectivist  and  a  subjectivist  stage, 
or  a  pre-conscious  and  a  post-conscious  stage. 
But  beyond  this  antithesis  and  at  the  decisive 
point  there  is  a  fully  conscious  height  of  pro- 
ductiveness, upon  which  all  vital  movements  con- 
verge. Here  alone  is  there  an  insight  into  an 
independent  and  self-contained  reality,  a  sustained 
effort,  a  direct  contact  with  the  creative  depths 
of  life ;  here  alone  can  life  transcend  its  tem- 
porary limitations  and  assume  a  timeless  character. 
These  classical  heights  seem  externally  to  last 
only  a  short  time.  They  may  be  regarded  as 
rare  festivals  of  humanity.  But  they  really 
have  a  permanent  influence,  and  thousands  of 
years  afterwards  they  live  on  their  accumulated 
treasures. 

The  history  of  civilisation  shows  us  three  great 
vital  contacts  of  this  kind :  the  ancient  world 
with  its  emphasis  on  colour  and  form,  the  Chris- 
tian-religious world  with  its  deepening  of  souls, 
and  the  modern  world  with  its  exploitation  and 
intensification  of  force.  In  other  words,  form, 
character,  and  force  are  the  chief  vehicles  of  the 
movement.  Each  of  them  attains  its  peculiar 
and  self-sufficient  reality ;    each  of  them  has  its 


92  SOCIALISM:   AN   ANALYSIS 

characteristic  procedure,  its  own  experience,  and 
its  special  aims.  They  are  higher  currents  of 
life  with  which  all  fruitful  productiveness  has 
to  come  to  terms.  It  is  only  by  contact  with 
these  currents  of  life  that  one  can  pass  beyond 
a  state  of  indecisive  activity  and  attain  a  deep- 
rooted  progressiveness  and  genuine  truth.  The 
movement  and  conflict  of  these  currents  form 
the  theatre  of  the  history  of  the  spirit. 

But,  whatever  these  movements  may  accom- 
plish beyond  history,  on  the  historical  level  the 
forces  wear  themselves  out.  We  have  to  recog- 
nise a  self-destruction  as  well  as  a  rise  of  civi- 
lisations. It  would  mean  the  tragic  end  of  all 
human  enterprise  if  the  life  of  the  spirit  were 
wholly  embodied  in  the  movement  of  a  civili- 
sation ;  if  there  were  not  a  victorious  independent 
spirituality,  raised  high  above,  to  convert  the 
succession  of  civilisations  into  a  real  co-operation. 
The  work  of  man  has,  however,  to  deal  directly 
with  the  separate  realities  of  life,  and  the  actual 
condition  of  any  age  is  mainly  determined  by 
the  attitude  of  the  race  toward  these  realities. 


(c)  The  Present  Situation. 

In  relation  to  these  movements  the  life  and 
effort  of  the  present  occupy  a  very  character- 
istic  position.     At   the    moment   several   different 


LIFE  AS   A  WHOLE  93 

worlds  meet  each  other  in  us  :  conflicting  cur- 
rents struggle  with  each  other  around  us.  The 
spiritual  power  that  possesses  the  average  man 
in  our  day  is  the  spirit  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
with  its  high  appreciation  of  reason  and  its  special 
attention  to  the  purposeful  and  useful.  Deriving 
its  chief  features  from  the  seventeenth  century, 
it  was  fully  developed,  and  secured  spiritual 
dominion,  in  the  eighteenth.  There  was  then 
a  furious  resistance  to  it,  but  in  the  course  of 
its  development  it  effected  most  important,  in 
fact  decisive,  achievements  (the  Sturm  und  Drang 
movement,  classicism,  and  Romanticism)  the 
spiritual  content  of  which  far  transcends  the 
movement  itself.  While,  however,  these  things 
have  captured  the  higher  intellectual  world,  they 
have  no  influence  on  the  mass  of  people  of  our 
time.  It  is  true  that  the  chief  feature  of  our 
time  is  still  that  of  the  eighteenth  century,  though 
it  has  in  the  meantime  been  very  much  modified ; 
but  there  is  an  undeniable  gulf  between  what 
appeals  to  the  majority  and  what  is  appreciated 
in  higher  circles.  Even  in  these  higher  circles, 
moreover,  there  is  a  lack  of  unity  and  continuity, 
so  that  it  is  not  strange  that  in  the  conflict  the 
masses  prevail  over  the  few.  The  actual  con- 
dition of  life  binds  us  to  a  good  deal  to  which 
we  feel  ourselves  superior,  yet  which  we  dare  not 
abandon. 


94  SOCIALISM  :   AN   ANALYSIS 

Upon  this  feeble  and  distracted  age  there  now 
comes  the  mighty  agitation  caused  by  the  stub- 
born persistence  of  the  social  problem  and  the 
rise  of  Socialism  to  power.  This  event  not  only 
divides  the  race  into  opposite  camps ;  it  may 
revolutionise  the  whole  condition  of  life.  Socialism 
derives  great  strength  from  the  fact  that  it  wrests 
the  problem  of  life  from  the  movements,  ex- 
periences, and  wishes  of  the  immediate  present, 
and  purports  to  illumine  and  refashion  every- 
thing from  a  single  point  of  view.  All  that  has 
gone  before  is,  in  its  esteem,  only  a  preparation 
for  the  present.  It  confines  itself  strictly  to 
life  as  we  know  it  in  experience.  Man  is 
the  centre  of  the  whole :  man  without  any 
addition  or  artificial  fringes.  But  he  receives 
his  special  character  and  life  from  his  surround- 
ings, his  social  environment ;  and  his  chief  task 
is  to  bring  about  a  new  social  order  which  pro- 
mises to  revolutionise,  ennoble,  and  uplift  all 
the  conditions  of  life.  The  whole  movement  of 
the  race  tends  toward  this  ideal  as  to  a  peak 
that  closes  its  horizon. 

When  we  turn  to  a  critical  appreciation  of 
this  movement  as  a  whole,  we  must  first  dis- 
tinguish between  the  larger  idea  of  the  Socialist 
movement,  which  is  found  in  all  existing  nations, 
and  the  detailed  form  which  it  assumes  in  any 
particular    nation,    especially    the    German ;     and 


LIFE   AS   A   WHOLE  95 

at  the  same  time  we  must  notice  the  threads 
which  connect  the  two.  We  must  not  lose  sight 
of  the  peculiar  position  of  the  Socialist  move- 
ment in  Germany.  Precisely  as  a  result  of  its 
victorious  progress  it  has  developed  many  com- 
plications in  its  own  body.  In  the  early  days 
the  Socialist  movement  met  with  stern  resistance 
and  a  good  deal  of  misunderstanding.  It  was 
not  without  its  martyrs.  It  is  not  therefore  sur- 
prising that  hopes  and  wishes  went  far  beyond 
the  possibilities,  and  that  a  glorious  light  poured 
over  everything,  that  a  golden  heaven  seemed 
to  be  opening. 

Then  experience  made  itself  clearly  felt  with 
its  difficulties.  Once  again  it  was  realised  that 
ideas  can  easily  live  together  in  the  mind,  but 
things  not  so  easily  in  space.  The  happy  honey- 
moon was  soon  over  for  Socialism  ;  the  limita- 
tions of  hard  facts,  and  still  more  of  men's 
minds,  became  acutely  perceptible.  It  is  pre- 
cisely this  fact  which  makes  it  necessary,  nay 
imperative,  to  study  the  problem  of  life  thoroughly 
and  see  how  far  Socialism  is  able  to  meet  the 
spiritual  condition  of  humanity.  For  in  the  long 
run  it  is  human  nature  as  a  whole  that  passes 
judgment  on  every  attempt  to  improve  it. 

This  question  cannot  be  solved  unless  we  bear 
clearly  in  mind  the  chief  stages  which  we  found 
in    man's    condition.     It    is    absolutely    necessary 


96  SOCIALISM  :   AN  ANALYSIS 

to  compare  these  stages  and  their  achievements 
and  requirements  with  the  ideal  that  is  put 
before  us.  This  ideal  must  meet  the  demands 
which  life  as  a  whole,  with  the  three  chief  ele- 
ments of  its  graduation,  makes  on  man.  We 
have  therefore  to  inquire  (1)  whether  the  deeper 
layer  of  human  life  is  seen  with  sufficient  clear- 
ness in  the  chaos  of  the  immediate  impression, 
and  whether  it  provides  definite  guiding  lines 
for  thought  and  conduct :  (2)  whether  the  par- 
ticular experiences  of  human  nature  with  all  their 
complexities  and  contradictions  can  be  adequately 
recognised,  and  whether  the  problems  thus  raised 
are  capable  of  a  satisfactory  solution  :  (3)  how  far 
the  ideal  offered  to  us  is  adapted  to  the  spiritual 
movement  of  humanity,  and  assimilates  this  into 
its  own  work  and  efforts.  It  is  far  beyond  my 
present  purpose  to  answer  these  questions  syste- 
matically and  deductively,  yet  we  must  face  them 
seriously.  They  must  be  the  main  position  to 
which  we  shall  return  at  every  stage,  and  from 
the  point  of  view  of  which  we  must  pass  judg- 
ment. The  chief  question  is  how  far  the  reality 
presented  to  us  meets  the  requirements  of  the 
case,  at  what  points  and  in  what  directions  it 
goes  beyond  them,  and  what  methods  must  be 
pursued  in  regard  to  it.  It  is  therefore  a  ques- 
tion of  comparing  the  necessities  which  are  in- 
herent   in    our   life    with    the    solution    offered    to 


LIFE   AS   A   WHOLE  97 

us,  and  of  establishing  their  rights  and  wrongs. 
We  will  therefore  now  take  in  detail  the  various 
parts  of  the  Socialist  ideal,  and  enter  the  very- 
heart  of  the  mighty  struggle  that  is  going  on 
around  us. 


EXAMINATION 
OF  THE 

SOCIALIST  IDEAL 


CHAPTER  IV 

EXAMINATION   OF 
THE   SOCIALIST   IDEAL 


§1 

THE    QUESTION    OF    THE    UNITY    AND 
HARMONY    OF    LIFE 

There  is  not  the  slightest  doubt  that  humanity 
to-day  urgently  needs  an  inner  harmony  and 
a  settled  goal.  Socialism  derives  considerable 
strength  from  the  fact  that  it  fully  recognises 
this  situation.  But  the  situation  is  one  thing ; 
the  remedy  of  it  is  another.  The  Socialist 
remedy  is  to  make  the  economic  well-being  of 
society  our  chief  aim.  To  this  purpose  it  sub- 
ordinates all  others ;  from  this  point  of  view 
it  hopes  to  cover  every  province  of  life.  In  its ' 
support  it  can  quote  a  formidable  array  of  facts. 
In  the  first  place  physical  and  economic  well- 
being  is  a  necessary  condition  of  human  prosperity. 
Grave  evil  is  done  by  neglecting  it.     Further,  it 

101 


102         SOCIALISM  :   AN  ANALYSIS 

is  not  a  mere  question  of  conditions,  but  of  con- 
stant contacts  and  relations  of  this  side  of  life  v!y 
to  its  entire  development.  The  older  idealism 
treated  the  material,  including  the  economic,  as 
a  subordinate  requirement,  but  experience  has 
shown  that  the  material  intervenes  in  the  vital 
development  of  the  spiritual,  and  that  it  is  far 
more  than  a  mere  means  to  an  end.  To  this 
extent  it  is  unquestionable  that  the  different 
aspects  of  life  must  be  taken  together. 

But  it  is  a  question  whether  these  things  are 
all  on  the  same  plane  ;  whether  we  have  not  to 
distinguish  between  leading  and  following  groups, 
and  whether  our  life  is  not  very  definitely  graduated 
in  stages.  Even  the  economic  view  of  life 
cannot  escape  the  fact  that  our  life  shows  a  broad 
division  :  a  life  bound  up  with  the  senses  and 
a  life  that  is  independently  active,  a  merely  existing 
world  and  a  world  of  action.  The  one  has  its 
roots  in  sensation,  the  other  in  thought. 

This  leads  to  different  points  of  view  and 
tendencies.  In  the  one  case  life  is  in  a  world 
of  sense  that  embraces  it ;  in  the  other  case  it 
may  take  up  an  attitude  of  opposition  to  the 
world  of  sense  and  follow  lines  of  its  own.  As  a 
result  of  this  we  get  radically  different  standards 
of  value  without  any  common  measure.  On  the 
one  side  are  instincts,  ideas,  conditions  that  do 
not   materially   go   beyond   those   of  the   animals 


EXAMINATION   OF   THE   IDEAL     103 

which  are  nearest  to  us  :    a  sheer,  blind  actuality 
of  events,  an  unending  stream  of  action  and  re- 
action,    a    casual    juxtaposition    of    elements,     a 
restriction  to  particular  impressions  and  impulses. 
On  the  other  side  is  an   effort  to  attain  a  con- 
nected system  of  ideas,  a  power  of  associating  and 
dissociating,  judging  and  selecting,  the  emergence 
of    contents    which   refer  life  to  itself  and    bind 
together  particular   actions  by  means   of  common 
aims.     On   the   one   side   a   predominance   of  the 
world    of   sense    with    all    its    fortuitousness    and 
transitoriness    and    slavery    to    the    impression    of 
the    moment ;     on    the    other    the     capacity     to 
construct  one's  own  plans  and  carry  them  through 
in  spite  of  all  obstacles,  to  control  one's  impulses - 
from  a  higher  point  of  view  and  bring  them  into 
subjection   to   standards    of   conduct.     It   is   only 
action   of  this   kind   that   can   oppose   the   ideals 
of  civilisation  to  the  world  of  sense,  bring  it  under 
the  dominion  of  man,  convert  the  mere  contiguity 
of  individuals  into  a  firm  social  order,   and  link 
the  succession  of  moments  in  an  enduring  history. 
It  is  therefore  beyond  question  that  there  are 
different  stages  in  the  life  of  man.     These  must 
be  brought  into  relation  to  each  other,  but  this 
relation    must    not    be    one    of   direct    confluence. 
There  must  be  a  division,  so  that  each  type  shall 
develop    its    peculiar  qualities  and  give    effect    to 
them.     Merely    bringing    the    two    together    does 


A 


104         SOCIALISM  :   AN  ANALYSIS 

not  provide  a  connection  between  them  or  give 
us  a  dominant  unity.    But  the  connection  suggested  \i 
by  Socialism  confuses  the  two  stages,  and  yields  1/ 
no    superior    and    comprehensive    unity.     All    its 
fundamental  ideas   are   on   this  account  obscured, 
if  not  ambiguous. 

This  is  particularly  clear  in  the  case  of  its  con- 
ception of  the  collective  life,  which  transcends 
everything  else.  This  collective  life  differs  entirely 
according  as  spirit  or  nature  provides  the  standard 
for  it  and  controls  its  main  features.  There  is  a 
wide  difference  between  a  mere  society  and  a 
community  with  some  internal  connectedness  ; 
life  is  forced  to  take  very  different  paths  in  the 
two  cases.  If  the  collectivitism  of  men  is  merely*^ 
a  matter  of  living  side  by  side,  the  various  elemenis  ' 
may  indeed  be  in  contact  with  each  other,  but 
they  cannot  help  each  other ;  whereas  if  there 
is  an  inner  communism,  we  get  the  action  of  a 
higher  whole.  If  there  is  mere  contiguity,  we 
mav  have  an  occasional  concentration,  but  it 
cannot ,  eijfect  any  material  changes  and  improve- 
mentsr  And  since  these  are  absolutely  required, 
there  must  be  a  force  at  work  in  man  that  is 
something  more  than  mere  existence,  a  force  that 
engenders  a  world  of  activity.  Socialism  has  ^  no  ,„,.> 
means  of  recognising  such  a  world  of  action. 

The   more   closely   we   consider   this,    the   more 
clearly  we  discover  a  flagrant  contradiction  in  the 


> 


EXAMINATION   OF   THE   IDEAL     105 

fundamental  elements  of  its  ideal.  It  wants  to 
create  a  structure  which  is  superior  to  the  individuals, 
and  all  its  wishes  and  hopes  are  centred  in  this,  Jp** 
but  what  it  constructs  can  never  be  more  than 
a  bringing  together  of  separate  elements  without 
any  inner  connection.  It  thus  comes  to  be  divided 
in  its  own  body.  Its  ideal  of  the  whole  demands 
a  world  of  action,  and  puts  in  on  the  lines  of  self- 
direction  and  spirit ;  but  in  its  actual  development 
it  imitates  the  mere  contiguity  of  the  material 
world  and  is  bound  up  with  it/  The  consequence 
is  that  it  contains  several  different  ideals  of  life 
which  are  not  reconciled  with  each  other.  Even 
the  happiness  it  offers  is  marred  by  this  division. 
The  whole  body  is  to  be  as  happy  as  possible ;  >' 
but  what  is  the  nature  of  the  happiness  if  in  the 
end  it  means  merely  the  welfare  of  individuals, 
if  it  does  not  evolve  a  realm  of  goodness  and  truth 
out  of  the  turmoil  of  interests  and  enable  human 
nature  to  participate  in  it  ?  Quantity,  it  seems, 
is  to  replace  quality  ;  but  is  that  done  so  easily  ? 
Do  we  not  find  ourselves  in  entirely  different 
worlds  ?  Socialism  wants  a  community,  but 
can  only  attain  a  comradeship. 

Thus  the  situation  is  extremely  unsatisfactory 
as  far  as  unity  and  connection  are  concerned. 
In  spite  of  all  concentration  the  individuals  are 
inwardly  separated  from  each  other.  If  the 
economic  task  is  held  to  be  a  supreme  aim  uniting 


106         SOCIALISM  :   AN  ANALYSIS 

the  various  provinces  of  life,  this  means  that  their 
qualities  will  be  restricted  and  stunted.  A  certain 
relation — in  fact  a  union — is  proved  on  one 
particular  level  of  life,  but  this  level  is  not  the 
whole  of  life  ;  it  is  not  even  the  main  level,  the 
level  which  determines  its  meaning  and  value. 
We  have  already  seen  that  there  are  far  greater 
and  more  difficult  duties.  We  certainly  cannot 
regard  the  actual  situation,  with  all  its  contra- 
dictions, as  final,  but  we  can  only  escape  from 
it  by  means  of  progressive  productiveness,  an 
uplifting  revolution,  a  comprehensive  remoulding 
of  reality. 

The  Socialist  ideal  will  not  solve  this  problem. 
It  can  find  stones  for  the  building  and  stimulate 
people  to  work  ;  but  it  cannot  either  design  or 
create  the  entire  structure.  Indeed,  as  regards 
the  problem  of  the  unification  of  life  the  Socialist 
ideal  achieves  precisely  the  opposite  of  what  it 
intended.  It  wishes  to  bind  men  together  more 
closely  and  make  an  end  of  all  gulfs  between 
them,  but  as  it  builds  only  from  without,  not 
from  within,  and  has  no  higher  life  to  offer, 
the  individuals  will  inevitably  diverge  more  and 
more  from  each  other.  Any  one  of  them  may 
impose  his  conception  of  life  upon  the  others. 
There  will  be  an  increasing  dispersion  until  in  the 
end  some  force  brings  the  situation  to  a  close. 
You  get  at    last  the  demand  for  a  dictation  of 


EXAMINATION   OF   THE   IDEAL     10? 

the  proletariat ;  but  what  is  the  use  of  a  dictatorship 
when  there  is  no  supreme  dictator  ?  This  Socialist 
effort  to  secure  unity  is  only  another  illustration 
of  the  old  truth  that  you  get  a  particularly  large 
amount  of  conflict  out  of  an  inadequate  attempt 
to  bring  about  unity.  I  Socialism  therefore  ^does 
not  go  deep  enough  into  the  roots  of  life^>  It 
overlooks  the  immense  complications,  and  also 
the  immense  possibilities,  that  human  life  bears 
within  itself.  Instead  of  the  whole  of  life  it  takes 
up  only  a  certain  section  ;  a  section  that  may  in 
special  circumstances  passionately  agitate  the 
race,  but  can  never  permanently  satisfy  it.  Real 
unity  can  never  be  attained  by  bringing  individuals 
together  externally.  It  can  only  be  secured  by  a 
high  and  comprehensive  world  of  action.  This 
only  will  enable  us  to  rise  above  our  actual 
situation. 


EXAMINATION    OF   THE   SOCIALIST  IDEALISM 

Socialism  hopes  to  bring  about  more  unity  in 
life  by  directing  efforts  immediately  to  man  and 
his  welfare,  making  him  the  measure  of  all  things, 
and  removing  from  him  all  restrictions  and  inter- 
ferences. This  concentration  upon  man  is  in  harmony 
with  one  of  the  chief  features  of  modern  life  in 
the  sense  that  the  elevation  of  man  to  the  position 
of  central  point  of  the  spiritual  movement  dis- 
tinguishes our  age  clearly  from  earlier  ages. 
Formerly  man  was  regarded  as  a  member  or  a 
part  of  a  comprehensive  whole,  whether  this  was 
held  to  be  the  universe  (cosmos)  or  a  kingdom 
of  God.  In  either  case  the  whole  seemed  to  give 
life  its  substance  and  its  value.  Our  age,  on  the 
contrary,  starts  from  man,  and  seeks  to  understand 
the  world  through  him  and  distribute  life  according 
to  its  own  powers.  This  modern  tendency,  however, 
passes  through  various  stages  and  has  had  very 
varied  results.  The  chief  aim  of  it  was  to  bridge 
the  gulf  which  had  been  caused  by  the  division 

108 


EXAMINATION   OF   THE   IDEAL     109 

into  a  simple  and  a  spiritually  active  stage  between 
man  and  the  world.  This  was  first  attempted 
intellectually  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries.  They  thought  that  they  were  strong 
enough  to  bind  the  two  closely  and  conduct  their 
vitality  to  man. 

Kant's  critical  system,  with  its  disintegration 
of  the  idea  of  reality,  altered  all  this.  It  placed 
the  centre  of  gravity  of  life  in  moral  conduct, 
which  thus  rose  to  the  rank  of  an  independent 
world  and  ascribed  to  human  nature  and  its 
freedom  an  infinite  value,  though  it  did  not  include 
the  whole  substance  of  life.  The  separation 
that  was  thus  effected  led  in  a  remarkable  way 
to  a  speculative  attempt  to  derive  the  whole  of 
reality  from  man's  productive  powers.  As  time 
went  on  it  was  found  that  this  was  an  excessive 
strain  of  man's  faculties,  and  thus  man  and  the 
world  fell  apart,  and  the  problem  of  their  relation 
arose  once  more. 

In  the  meantime  a  situation  had  developed 
which  tended  to  confine  man  more  and  more  to 
his  own  circle.  In  the  eighteenth  century  itself 
the  world  at  large  came  to  be  considered  more 
and  more  merely  the  environment  of  the  human 
province.  Then  Positivism  gave  a  scientific  form 
to  the  feeling,  cut  the  inner  connection  of  man 
with  the  world,  and  restricted  interest  entirely 
to    the    human     sphere.     Socialism    follows     the 


110         SOCIALISM  :   AN   ANALYSIS 

same  tendency,  but  it  completes  it  by  a  stronger 
emphasis  on  man's  own  achievements,  as  we  see 
them  in  the  subjection  of  nature  by  scientific 
and  technical  work  and  in  the  construction  of  a 
new  social  order.  Thus  armed,  man  seems  to  be 
in  a  position  to  rely  entirely  upon  himself  and 
secure  truth  and  happiness  for  his  life. 

But  this  is  not  done  quite  so  easily  and  smoothly 
as   it   would    appear.     Such   a   solution   has   pro- 
found consequences   both  for   man's  inward  con- 
dition   and    his    activity.     It    imposes    upon    him 
certain  limits  which  cannot  be  satisfactory  to  any 
thoughtful     person.     When     a     man     is     thrown 
entirely  upon    himself,  the  only  goal  he  can  set 
up  is  his  own  comfort  and  welfare,  the  happiness 
of   his    subjective    experience.     But    this    goal    is 
quite  inadequate  for  any  thoughtful  man  whose 
mind   is  fully   developed.     According  to   Socialist 
ideas  it  often  looks  as  if  a  life  not  overburdened 
with    work,    free    from    care,    and    attended    by 
intellectual    enjoyment  would  meet   all   one's   re- 
quirements.    It   may   seem   so   to   men   who    are 
overburdened    with    work    and    have    to    struggle 
hard  for  their  maintenance,   but  this  can  be  re- 
garded as  a  final  state  only  by  the  man  who  treats 
his  spiritual  nature  as  a  thing  of  no  consequence 
and    spiritual    activity    merely    as    a    luxury    and 
distraction,   not   as   an   inward   necessity,   a  com- 
pelling impulse  to  self-maintenance.     The  spiritual 


EXAMINATION   OF   THE   IDEAL     111 

activity  loses  its  power  to  uplift  when  it  is 
regarded  as  simply  an  appendage  to  a  life  that 
is  of  a  fundamentally  different  character.  Even 
the  finer  type  of  comfort  and  enjoyment  will,  in 
a  detached  subject,  turn  into  an  inward  emptiness, 
which  in  the  long  run  will  prove  less  tolerable  than 
care  and  want,  struggle  and  pain.  Ancient 
Epicureanism  showed  this  two  thousand  years 
ago,  and  Socialistic  Epicureanism  will  show  the 
same  thing. 

To  meet  this  intolerable  emptiness  men  turned 
to  work,  in  order  to  derive  from  it  a  worthy  aim 
for  their  lives.     The  nineteenth  century  in  particular 
produced  a  fine  and   very   successful  idealism   of 
work   in   this   sense.     With   a   feverish   exaltation 
of  all   its   forces   and   a   concentration   of  all   its 
interests  it  brought  the  whole  of  life  into  subjection 
to   work,    but   its   very   success   made   its   defects' 
clear  to  everybody,  and  awakened  fresh  concern - 
about   the   soul.     That   put   wind   into   the   sails ' 
of  Socialism,  but,  as  it  recognised  no  soul  beyond 
one's  subjective  experience,  it  could  give  man  as, 
a    whole    no    purpose    and    no    substance.     The 
average    man    therefore    remained    in    a    state    of 
restless  and  helpless  vacillation  between  the  two 
movements.      Such     distraction     and     emptiness 
could    not    possibly    produce    great    personalities 
or  excite  original  productiveness. 

The   problem   is  now  clear  to  all.     Above   and 


112         SOCIALISM  :   AN  ANALYSIS 

beyond  all  particular  questions  and  tasks  is  the 
problem  of  man  as  a  whole.  It  can  only  be 
approached  with  any  prospect  of  success  if  we 
take  it  in  its  historical  connection  and  bring  about 
a  real  revolution.  We  need  new  possibilities  : 
a  new  attitude  of  man  toward  reality.  The  men 
of  earlier  times  started  from  the  world  as  a  whole, 
and  life  was  thus  deprived  of  its  full  freedom 
and  originality  ;  we  of  modern  times  started  from 
freedom  and  originality,  and  our  life  had  no  firm 
substance  or  settled  truth.  It  threatened  con- 
tinually to  fall  into  the  merely  subjective  and 
personal.  We  have  now  to  bring  freedom  and 
truth  closer  together.  That  can  only  be  done  by 
radically  altering  our  conception  of  man  and 
bridging  over  the  gulf  between  him  and  the 
world,  by  recognising  in  man  himself  a  cosmic 
life  and  raising  him  from  the  depths  of  his  being 
to  a  creative  height.  ^This  gives  us  a  new  idea 
of  man  as  a  whole.  It  includes  the  two  stages, 
nature  and  spirit ;  but  it  is  characteristic  of  the 
spiritual  stage  that  it  brings  together  the  individual 
element  and  the  collective  life,  and  in  combination 
they  form  an  independent  vital  concentration, 
a  spiritual  energy,  which  is  essentially  different 
from  that  of  the  elements  in  nature  owing  to 
its  being  based  upon  collective  life.. 

The  fact   that   there   is   in   man   an   individual 
element  as  well  as  a  cosmic  life,  and  that  some 


EXAMINATION   OF   THE   IDEAL     113 

relation  between  the  two  is  possible,  gives  us  a 
distinctive  life-process  which  must  control  the 
shaping  of  our  ideals.  It  is  only  when  pro- 
ductiveness is  not  opposed  to  the  world,  but 
kept  within  it,  that  the  conception  of  the  content 
of  life  has  any  clear  meaning  ;  only  then  can  there 
be  a  construction  of  reality  ;  only  then  can  the 
wild  desire  of  life  be  tamed  and,  amidst  the  strain 
of  action,  a  self-containedness  of  life,  an  inner 
unity,  a  calm  outlook,  an  independent  productivity 
become  possible.  The  chief  provinces  and  ten- 
dencies of  life — science  and  art,  religion  and 
law — do  then  not  mean  the  work  of  detached 
points,  but  they  are  witnesses  to  a  higher  collective 
force.  It  is  true  that  such  an  advance  as  this 
can,  in  view  of  the  limitations  of  human  nature, 
only  proceed  gradually,  but  the  main  fact  remains, 
that  there  is  in  man  a  movement  toward  these 
goals,  and  that  it  reveals  to  us  a  new  relation  of 
reality  to  the  whole. 

There  may  even  be  collective  experiences  which 
are  at  the  same  time  direct  experiences  of  man 
as  a  spiritual  being.  The  antithesis  of  truth 
and  freedom  may  no  longer  trouble  us  with  its 
discord,  because  man,  as  the  agent  of  a  productive 
life,  may  directly  share  in  both.  In  such  a 
situation  his  life  acquires  an  indubitable  meaning 
and  a  high  value.  There  are  other  consequences, 
of  various  kinds.     In  such  a  situation  as  this  a 

8 


114         SOCIALISM  :   AN  ANALYSIS 

spiritual  culture  may  succeed  in  overcoming  the 
antagonism  of  work  and  concern  for  one's  welfare. 
From  this  point  of  view  also  we  can  successfully 
meet  the  intellectualism  which  has  done  so  much 
harm  in  modern  times.  Intellectual  activity  may 
still  remain  one  of  the  chief  parts  of  the  spiritual 
life,  but  it  is  within,  not  opposed  to,  a  higher 
productivity.  Man  and  the  world  no  longer 
diverge  from  each  other  ;  they  are  bound  together 
by  an  inner  movement.  Mankind  is  no  longer 
lonely,  abandoned  in  a  dark  and  inaccessible 
world  ;  this  movement  may  bring  light  and  make 
the  connection  closer.  This  gives  us  a  new  idea 
of  life  and  civilisation,  based  upon  a  new  idea  of 
the  world  and  strengthening  this  by  its  power. 

All  these  problems  find  the  Socialistic  ideal 
without  a  solution.  When  it  tries  to  solve  them 
it  falls  into  serious  errors.  The  last  term  of  these 
errors  is  the  humanitarian  idealism  which  pervades 
the  whole  ideal.  It  treats  man  as  a  superior 
value,  and  it  wants  to  direct  every  effort  toward 
him  ;  but  it  can  find  no  basis  for  this  value.  It 
falls  into  the  contradiction  of  treating  man  as  a 
mere  piece  of  reality  and  transferring  to  this 
piece  of  the  world  that  appreciation  which  belongs 
only  to  a  standard  of  value. 

This  procedure  is  always  dangerous,  as  it  attributes 
the  claims  of  the  ideal  man  to  the  empirical  man. 
This  is  bound  to  lower  considerably  every  standard 


EXAMINATION   OF   THE   IDEAL     115 

of  life  and  inspire  a  superficial  optimism.  It  also 
causes  a  disposition  to  shelve  all  problems  that 
are  very  difficult,  and  to  cast  as  far  as  possible 
upon  the  external  circumstances  of  life  the  com- 
plications which  it  cannot  ignore.  In  this  way 
friend  and  foe  are  apt  to  be  judged  by  different 
standards.  It  seems  sometimes  as  if  misunder- 
standing were  confined  to  opponents,  and  the 
members  of  the  party  were  considered  blameless 
and  faultless.  (  Let  us  rather  have  a  firm  faith 
in  the  spiritual  and  divine  in  human  nature,  and 
not  this  blind  belief  in  man's  ordinary  self.) 


>ocialistic  idealism  is  eager  to  ensure  the  progress 
as  far  as  possible  of  individuals,  but  it  injures 
the  race  by  lowering  the  standard,  and,  when 
that  is  done,  individuals  also  must  suffer.  We 
have  painful  evidence  of  the  result  dail\.  In 
fact,  this  confusion  of  human  jiatuxs  with  man's 
actual  condition  makes  the  life  of  the  whole  com- 
munity vapid  and  one-sided.  The  Socialist  ideal 
has  certainly  the  great  merit  of  bringing  men  into 
closer  association  and  making  them  stronger  and 
more  active  in  this  way.  There  is  still  much  to 
be  done  in  this  important  direction.  But  the 
work  ought  to  be  preceded  by  the  generation  of 
spiritual  standards  and  forces.  It  must  not  be 
the  first  task,  though  it  has  an  indisputable  right 
to  the  second  place.  We  must  not  measure  spiritual 
standards    by    ordinary    human    nature,    but    the 


116         SOCIALISM  :   AN  ANALYSIS 

reverse.  We  cannot  make  man  the  standard  with- 
out regarding  his  welfare  as  the  supreme  goal, 
without  making  everything  relative  and  subjective, 
without  treating  the  inward  state  of  life  as  a 
secondary  matter,  without  appreciating  all  that 
is  done  only  in  so  far  as  it  contributes  to  the 
comfort  of  the  individual. 

While,  therefore,  the  Socialist  ideal  will  remove 
many  evils  and  effect  many  improvements,  promote 
education,  and  mitigate  the  crudities  and  injustices 
of  the  existing  order,  it  remains  true  that  its 
tendency  to  treat  the  spiritual  substance  of  life 
merely  as  a  means  to  advance  the  welfare  of  men 
is  very  injurious..  Spirit  or  man,  uplift  of  human 
nature  or  the  welfare  of  individuals — that  is  a 
question  that  will  not  be  evaded.  Socialism 
decides  for  man.  But  all  spiritual  activity  that 
is  not  regarded  as  an  independent  value  is  lost ; 
as  a  mere  means  this  kind  of  life  cannot  attain 
the  inward  compulsion,  the  inner  joy  and  uplift, 
the  power  of  self-preservation,  so  that  the  soul 
be  moved  to  grasp  it,  and  turn  it  into  original 
and  constructive  activity.  Such  a  life  is  con- 
demned to  spiritual  sterility.  It  does  not  suffi- 
ciently rouse  man  from  his  lethargy  and  stagnation. 
It  places  before  the  soul  no  inexorable  "  Either — Or." 
It  may  be  fully  occupied  with  political  and  social 
questions  and  devote  a  passionate  zeal  to  them, 
but  it  brings  down   every  question  to  the  level 


EXAMINATION   OF  THE   IDEAL     117 

of  the  politics  of  the  day,  of  economic  interests, 
of  parties  ;  it  does  not  consult  the  inner  man, 
the  entirety  of  human  nature.  But  what  will 
become  of  man  when  material  things  are  all  to 
him  ?  When  he  loses  himself  by  always  looking 
outwards  ? 

All  this  has  led  to  a  great  deal  of  confusion 
in  the  appreciation  of  man.  Different  ages  had 
different  conceptions.  It  was  quite  natural  that 
in  certain  special  circumstances  man  turned  to 
himself  and  tried  to  strengthen  himself  in  his 
own  nature.  So  it  was  in  the  last  phase  of  the 
ancient  world,  when  the  idea  of  humanity  gave 
great  strength ;  so  in  modern  times,  when  it 
helped  to  increase  the  feeling  of  life.  We  can 
quite  understand  that  in  the  grave  inner  and  outer 
struggles  of  modern  times  many  seem  to  find 
in  the  idea  of  humanity  a  more  joyous  outlook 
and  a  much-needed  consolation.  But  how  frail 
and  tottering  our  support  has  now  become  !  In 
the  later  phase  of  ancient  times  and  in  the  eighteenth 
century  the  idea  of  humanity  was  firmly  based 
upon  a  theory  of  a  higher  cosmic  reason.  It 
seemed  to  speak  to  souls  as  a  strengthening  and 
directive  force.  But  for  most  of  us  this  theory 
is  now  an  empty  phrase,  and  we  see  no  substitute 
for  the  power  it  exerted. 

There  is,  in  fact,  to-day  over  wide  areas  of  life 
a  positive  dislike  of  man,  a  taedium  generis  humani, 


118  SOCIALISM  :   AN   ANALYSIS 

as  it  was  called  in  the  last  days  of  the  ancient 
world.  We  have  at  one  and  the  same  time  the  evil 
of  overpopulation,  the  concentration  of  men  in 
cities,  the  economic  struggle,  and  so  on.  We  have 
not  space  enough.  One  man  is  the  enemy  of 
another.  Above  all  our  particular  questions  we 
feel  the  power  over  men  of  the  trivial,  the  common, 
the  evil.  The  idea  of  a  superman  occurred  to 
some  ;  but  can  thought  alone  get  over  realities 
and  their  power  ?  So  the  human  problem  finds 
us  involved  in  a  terrible  complication,  and  the 
Socialist  ideal  cannot  extricate  us.  The  situation 
would  be  hopeless  if  there  were  not  higher  forces 
working  in  man,  making  more  of  him,  unsealing 
old  and  new  springs  of  life  to  him.  At  present, 
however,  we  are  merely  searching. 


§3 

EXAMINATION    OF    THE 
SOCIALIST    CONCEPTION    OF    HISTORY 

One  of  the  chief  sources  of  the  strength  of  Socialism 
was  that  it  turned  life  entirely  into  an  affair  of  the 
present.  It  proposes  to  test  thoroughly  all  that 
has  been  handed  down  to  us,  to  reject  everything 
that  is  antiquated,  to  have  nothing  but  truth 
in  our  ideas  and  institutions.  As  true  it  re- 
garded only  what  immediately  affects  and  moves 
man.  This  was  to  give  freshness  and  power  to 
life.  There  is  no  question  but  that  in  our  life, 
where  the  past  so  often  hampers  the  present, 
we  have  a  great  deal  to  do  in  this  respect,  and  it 
was  quite  right  to  appeal  decisively  to  the  present. 
But  we  shall  now  see,  as  we  have  seen  in  so  many 
connections,  that  Socialism  conceives  the  problem 
in  a  short-sighted  and  partial  way,  and  that  all 
the  stimulation  that  it  can  afford  does  not  outweigh 
the  harm  it  does  to  the  substance  of  life. 

We   must  first  recognise  that  all  great  revolts 
against    the    traditional    are    particularly    apt    to 

119 


120         SOCIALISM  :   AN  ANALYSIS 

show  us  its  seamy  side,  and  this  was  bound  to 
be  especially  true  of  an  attitude  which  based 
life,  as  the  eighteenth  century  did,  upon  independent 
reason.  We  must  also  remember  that  the  masses, 
who  are  the  strength  of  Socialism,  know  very 
little  about  history,  and  live  almost  entirely  in 
the  present.  But  we  must  now  see  that  this 
unhistorical  attitude  gives  us  a  false  idea  of  reality 
and  leads  to  narrow-mindedness. 

Socialism  proposes  to  make  life  entirely  a  matter 
of  the  present.  What  does  it  mean  by  the  present  ? 
What  are  we  to  understand  by  it  ?  Does  it  mean 
merely  the  actual  moment  ?  Is  this  enough  for 
us  ?  In  that  case  there  would  be  no  firm  structure 
in  our  life.  Our  work  and  institutions  would 
merely  reflect  our  casual  and  individual  moods 
and  opinions.  Our  conduct  would  change  from 
time  to  time  just  as  each  season  has  its  new  fashions. 
No  one  would  admit  this  in  so  crude  a  form  ;  but 
can  we  escape  the  consequences  of  the  attitude  ? 
If  life  has  no  permanent  support,  and  is  surrendered 
entirely  to  the  stream  of  development,  it  breaks 
up  into  particular  impressions  ;  and  in  that  case 
there  is,  strictly  speaking,  no  present.  For  a 
thoughtful  person  there  can  be  no  present  without 
continuity.  It  must  have  some  sort  of  substance 
and  must  impart  this  to  man's  conduct.  Such  a 
person  cannot  receive  a  present  from  without  ; 
it  must  be  his  own  work — his  merit  or  his  fault. 


EXAMINATION   OF   THE   IDEAL     121 

We  have  therefore  to  distinguish  between  the 
momentary  present  and  a  genuine  present.  And 
a  genuine  present  needs  a  history.  It  is  unin- 
telligible unless  it  has  an  element  of  history  in  it. 
It  is  not  a  dead  past,  a  mere  memory  that  occupies 
our  minds  at  times  ;  it  is  not  a  mere  matter  of 
learning.  It  belongs  directly  to  the  present  and  is 
inseparable  from  it. 

Take  a  fully  civilised  nation.  Its  collective 
life  requires  permanent  institutions  and  aims. 
It  needs  permanent  connections,  common  ex- 
periences of  joy  and  sorrow.  These  connections 
were  generally  formed  gradually,  and  often  with 
much  trouble.  They  are  valuable  because  they 
weld  the  individuals  together  and  keep  common 
aims  before  them,  in  fact  infuse  into  them  a  common 
spirit. 

Such  a  collective  creation  is,  for  instance,  a 
national  army  ;  the  outcome  of  a  long  series  of 
generations  through  several  centuries.  Such  also, 
is  a  national  administration.  Continuities  of  this 
kind  often  have  their  sharp  corners  and  angularities. 
They  may  be  very  trying,  and  there  are  distinct 
weaknesses  in  their  strength.  But  they  give  a 
firm  direction  to  the  lives  of  large  bodies  of  men. 
They  embody  definite  aims,  and  they  strengthen 
the  collective  labours.  They  are  not  vague  ideas, 
accidents,  but  distinctive  modes  of  thought  and 
developments.     They  engender  special  forces  and 


122         SOCIALISM  :   AN  ANALYSIS 

feelings,  such  as  honour,  bravery,  devotion,  and 
incorruptibility.  They  put  a  check  on  lower 
impulses,  and  free  a  man  from  the  control  of 
fleeting  moments  and  varying  moods.  They  are 
real  life-forces.  It  is  only  a  superficial  optimism 
that  can  treat  them  as  of  no  importance.  These 
life-forces  are  difficult  to  build  up  and  easy  to 
destroy.  The  loyalty  and  steadiness  they  embody 
are  things  of  value,  the  destruction  or  enfeeble- 
ment  of  which  may  leave  great  gaps  in  our  life, 
as  we  have  recently  experienced. 

A  nation  without  tradition  is  not  a  complete 
entity.  It  has  no  shadow  of  its  own.  The 
quality  of  its  education,  the  force  of  its  legislation, 
depend  in  great  part  upon  its  tradition.  As  Sir 
J.  G.  Frazer  says  :  "  Only  a  legislation  which 
is  in  harmony  with  a  nation's  past  has  the  power 
to  build  up  a  nation's  future.  .  .  .  There  must 
be  in  every  law,  as  in  every  plant,  an  element  of 
the  past."  Living  history  and  dead  past  are 
two  totally  different  things.  A  nation  that  dis- 
owns its  history  must  disown  its  own  nature, 
deny  itself.     It  is,  in  a  word,  a  miserable  nation. 

How  does  the  Socialist  ideal  stand  in  this 
respect  ?  It  does  not  sufficiently  discriminate  in 
dealing  with  history.  It  does  not  distinguish 
between  a  passive  history,  which  merely  stores 
actual  events  in  the  memory  and  does  nothing 
further  with  them,   and  an  active  history,   which 


EXAMINATION   OF   THE   IDEAL     123 

is    concerned    with    man's    work    and    aspirations. 
Active    history    belongs    to    the    world    of   deeds, 
not  to  mere  existence.     It  is  this  alone  that  can 
bring  out  the   full   value   of  living  history.     But 
Socialism,  with  its  dependence  on  passive  history, 
cannot    pass    an    impartial    judgment.     It    is    apt 
to  use  a  double  standard  in  judging  the  old  and 
the  new.     It  sees  only  the  good  in  the  new  and 
only  the  bad  in  the  old,  and  it  at  times  becomes  a 
mere    caricature.     In    human    affairs    everything 
has  its  seamy  side,   and  it  is  very  easy  to  give 
prominence   to  this   and   make   it  the  basis   of  a 
verdict.       It  is,  to  say  the  least,  bad  taste  when 
even  well  educated  men  speak  of  the  traditional 
and     deep-rooted    order    of    things    as     a    mere 
"  authoritative     State."     In     Prussia,     certainly, 
the    idea    of    authority    was    often    overstrained ; 
but  is  that  all  that  we  can  say  even  of  Prussia, 
with  its  stern  insistence  on  duty,   its  subordina- 
tion   of    individuals    to    collective    purposes,    its 
unflinching    industry,     its    conscientiousness    and 
attention  to  detail  and  incorruptibility  ?     It  seems 
sometimes  as  if  most  Germans  had  lived  without 
any  liberty  until  the  recent  revolution  had  brought 
it  to  them.     The  liberty  which  the  old  order  gave, 
far  beyond  the  party-programs,  is  entirely  forgotten. 
And  it  is  equally  forgotten  that  each  great  civilisa- 
tion  has   its   own   idea   of  liberty.     Our   Radicals 
are  too  apt  to  confine  themselves  to  the  French 


124         SOCIALISM  :   AN   ANALYSIS 

idea  of  liberty  and  take  pride  in  imitating  it  as 
far  as  possible.  They  have  no  conception  of  the 
deep  meaning  of  the  German  idea  of  freedom. 

This  ignoring  of  what  is  great  in  our  character 
and  our  achievements  is  found  in  every  depart- 
ment of  life.  It  often  looks  as  if  our  educational 
system,  to  which  whole  centuries  have  contributed 
zealously,  were  in  such  a  condition  that  it  needs 
a  revolutionary  reform.  In  other  respects  also  we 
have  forgotten  that  Germany  was  the  first  of  all 
nations  in  social  legislation  for  the  workers,  and 
that  this  implied  great  sacrifices.  It  seems  to 
some  people  a  mark  of  intellectual  superiority 
to  decry  our  institutions. 

One  of  the  chief  reasons  for  this  error  in  under- 
estimating real  achievements  is  that  in  our  daily 
life  we  treat  many  things  as  self-evident  which 
are  by  no  means  self-evident,  but  which  have 
cost  a  good  deal  of  trouble  and  labour  and  even 
self-sacrifice.  People  would  not  speak  so  lightly 
of  Christianity  if  they  did  not  forget  what  a  task 
it  is  to  hold  men  together  inwardly  and  control 
the  lower  impulses  which  drive  us.  There  is  the 
same  carping  disposition  in  regard  to  the  State. 
What  Hegel  said  is  true  of  both  State  and  religion  : 
"  Education  begins  always  with  censure,  but, 
when  it  is  complete,  it  sees  the  positive  in  every- 
thing." That  is  particularly  true  in  periods  of 
great   change,    such   as   ours.     The   course   of  the 


EXAMINATION   OF   THE   IDEAL     125 

movement  shows  clearly  enough  that  a  good 
deal  that  we  are  accustomed  to  treat  as  self- 
evident  is  not  self-evident,  but  "  custom  makes 
the  very  basis  of  our  existence  invisible '  (as 
Hegel  says).  Nothing  betrays  more  clearly  the 
deterioration  of  the  whole  condition  of  life  when 
what  was  formerly  regarded  as  self-evident  becomes 
a  great  task.  How  does  our  own  time  stand  in 
this  respect  ? 

Inequality  in  the  treatment  of  various  periods 
is  accompanied  by  a  similar  treatment  of  ages. 
Youth  is  extolled  as  much  as  possible :  age  is 
depreciated  as  much  as  possible.  The  young 
seem  to  be  more  alert,  less  prejudiced,  keener 
on  freedom,  more  productive.  They  are  the  sole 
hope  of  the  future  and  must  take  precedence. 
The  larger  experience  and  riper  judgment  of  the 
old  count  for  nothing  in  comparison.  In  this 
Socialism  is  very  one-sided  and  short-sighted. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  life  as  a  whole  requires 
a  certain  equilibrium,  a  remedying  of  the  faults 
of  each  age  by  the  other.  Who  does  not  share 
Luther's  wish,  that  the  young  might  be  wise  and 
the  old  strong  ?  Each  age  has  its  advantages 
and  its  weaknesses,  and  it  is  wrong  to  see  only 
the  advantages  of  the  one  and  only  the  weaknesses 
of  the  other. 

There  is  also  the  confusion  of  the  physical  and 
the  psychic,  which  pervades  all  Socialist  thought. 


126         SOCIALISM  :   AN   ANALYSIS 

In  this  respect  different  ages  have  different  qualities. 
A  physical  youth  may  be  spiritually  feeble  and 
dull,  while  years  alone  give  no  advantage.  Times 
that  are  full  of  strength  and  endowments  can 
inspire  even  what  is  physically  old  with  youthful 
courage.  As  in  all  other  respects,  it  depends 
entirely  upon  what  spiritual  force  makes  of  a 
man.  The  number  of  years  is  nothing  in  itself. 
This  is  not  a  matter  in  which  you  can  measure 
by  the  yard. 

The  same  attitude  which  leads  to  an  exaggerated 
estimate  of  the  spiritual  present  is  also  apt  to 
make  the  pulse  of  social  life  as  slow  as  possible. 
Here  again  we  have  a  difficult  and  important 
problem.  Just  as  the  bodily  processes  depend  upon 
an  equilibrium  between  acceleration  and  re- 
tardation, so  even  the  psychic  life  needs  both, 
and  it  is  one  of  the  chief  merits  of  statesmanship 
to  steer  the  ship  of  State  prudently  between 
Scylla  and  Charybdis,  and  to  find  the  right  point 
for  action.  In  Germany  the  chief  danger  in  the 
political  world  is  undoubtedly  to  delay  too  long 
in  realising  proposals  :  to  consider  matters  very 
thoroughly — too  thoroughly — and  then  suddenly 
break  out  in  momentous  actions,  as  the  hasty 
beginning  of  the  late  war  showed. 

The  fault  of  Socialist  ideas  is  not  of  this  kind. 
It  wants  to  renovate  the  world  at  once,  and 
does  not  sufficiently  consider  whether  the  change 


EXAMINATION   OF   THE   IDEAL     127 

is  really  an  improvement.  It  also  forgets  too 
easily  the  conditions  of  success,  since  it  relies 
entirely  upon  the  intellect  and  entrusts  the 
decision  to  it.  Important  decisions  such  as 
the  promulgation  of  a  new  code  of  laws  or  a  new 
system  of  education  ought  to  be  preceded  by  a 
conscientious  and  thorough  consideration  of  the 
question  whether  our  age  is  sufficiently  firmly 
rooted  in  its  convictions  and  clear  as  to  its  objects 
to  find  the  necessary  force  and  confidence  for 
such  an  enterprise.  Otherwise  a  mere  wind  will 
blow  away  the  traces  of  our  work.  The  popular 
parliamentary  form  of  government  is  little  fitted 
to  determine  the  proper  rate  of  action.  Un- 
important questions  are  often  drawn  out  according 
to  the  favour  or  mood  of  parties,  while  important 
questions  are  hastily  decided.  New  measures 
about  telephones  are  of  deep  interest  to  our  over- 
burdened middle  class,  yet  a  small  majority  in 
a  thin  House  passes  such  measures  and  others 
of  great  importance. 

All  these  things  bring  us  back  to  the  great  problem 
of  the  relation  between  thought  and  experience, 
the  present  and  history.  Modern  times  here 
confront  a  formidable  problem  without  being 
able  to  solve  it  or  to  disentangle  itself  from  sharp 
antagonisms.  We  want  to  settle  everything  by 
our  own  ideas  and  actions,  to  enter  upon  every 
enterprise     in     a    spirit     of    independence.     This 


128         SOCIALISM  :   AN  ANALYSIS 

unintelligible  wish  was,  however,  checked  at  the 
beginning,  because  mere  thinking,  the  form  of 
life,  was  chiefly  entrusted  with  the  execution. 
In  earlier  ages  it  was  based,  not  upon  man's  mere 
intellect,  but  upon  absolute  thought.  It  had 
firm  foundations  such  as  "  innate  ideas."  The 
mind  rested  upon,  and  was  supported  by,  the 
truth  of  God. 

English  thinkers  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
especially  Locke,  brought  about  a  great  change. 
Innate  ideas  were  discarded  as  an  error.  The 
connection  with  absolute  reason  was  lost.  Reason 
sank  from  a  spiritual  to  a  human  level,  and  thought 
lost  all  its  independence.  It  had  to  draw  upon 
experience  for  its  entire  contents  ;  it  could  offer 
no  resistance  from  its  own  powers  to  the  stream 
of  impressions  and  impulses  ;  it  acted  like  soft 
wax  under  all  influences.  When  this  empirical 
theory  was  fully  developed,  and  followed  to  its 
logical  consequences,  independent  science  became 
impossible.  Its  claim  to  general  validity  and 
necessity  was  unsound.  All  thought  became 
mere  presentation,  either  on  the  part  of  individuals 
or  of  the  masses  which  they  made  up.  The  mental 
compromise  of  modern  times  shrinks  from  this 
logical  conclusion  and  its  denials,  and  relies  upon  a 
blend  of  thought  and  experience  ;  but  the  mixture 
is  useless.  Socialism  shares  this  vacillation  between 
empty  thought  and  concrete  impressions,   and  it 


EXAMINATION   OF  THE   IDEAL     129 

can  therefore  take  up  no  definite  position  in  regard 
to  the  contents  of  history.  It  rejects  history 
when  it  is  not  in  harmony  with  Socialist  ideas, 
but  adopts  it  willingly  when  it  promises  to  be  of 
any  use.  This  means  that  the  Socialist  judgment 
is  based  upon,  not  realities  and  their  require- 
ments, but  immediate  impressions  and  party- 
interests. 

Take,  for  instance,  the  German  universities. 
They  belong  in  origin  to  the  Middle  Ages  and  do 
not  fit  in  the  scheme  of  the  modern  State.  It  is  not 
difficult  to  find  in  them  much  that  is  antiquated. 
But  with  these  antiquated  features  is  intimately 
connected  that  which  gave  their  life  an  independ- 
ence and  their  work  an  originality,  and  won  the 
esteem  of  the  whole  civilised  world.  Ought  we 
not  to  seek  the  reasons  for  their  good  work  and 
improve  it  as  far  as  possible  rather  than  make  a 
parade  of  their  defects  ?  We  may  draw  a  distinc- 
tion between  the  irrational  and  the  unreasonable. 
Much  that  seems  to  be  irrational  may,  when  it  is 
closely  considered,  serve  a  deeper  reason.  Historical 
life,  with  its  combinations  and  institutions,  is  full 
of  an  irrational  element.  The  whole  of  reality 
known  to  us  is  pervaded  by  a  stern  struggle  of 
the  rational  and  irrational,  and  the  rational  must 
in  the  end  be  based  upon  a  life  of  activity,  a 
creative  will,  and  derive  its  substance  therefrom. 
But  in  all  these  things  Socialism  follows  the  line 

9 


130         SOCIALISM  :   AN  ANALYSIS 

of  the  eighteenth  century,  not  of  the  twentieth. 
It  cannot  therefore  come  into  close  touch  with 
history  ;  its  standards  are  too  small  for  the  fulness 
of  reality. 

The  limits  of  the  Socialist  ideal  must  be  clear 
to  any  man  who  does  not  merely  float  helplessly 
with  the  current  of  historical  events,  but  takes 
up  a  point  of  view  of  his  own  and  surveys  the 
whole  from  that.  It  is  an  indubitable  fact  that 
man  does  not  live  entirely  within  the  limits  of 
time.  By  means  of  his  thought  and  his  spiritual 
life  he  can  transcend  time  and  grasp  something 
eternal,  progressive,  present,  in  the  things  of  time. 
Consider  an  historical  phenomenon  such  as 
Christianity.  It  was  an  issue  of  special  conditions, 
of  a  very  troubled  and  distracted  age  ;  but  is  it 
on  that  account  merely  a  product  of  that  troubled 
age,  which  we  ought  to  get  rid  of  ?  Has  it  not 
produced  permanent  experiences,  achievements, 
and  objects,  with  which  even  we  cannot  dispense  ? 
Is  not  the  moral  antithesis  under  which  it  presents 
the  life  of  man  not  a  permanent  thing  ?  Can  we 
sacrifice  the  great  earnestness,  the  impelling  and 
rousing  force,  the  revelation  of  higher  powers 
and  original  sources  of  life,  which  it  gave  to  the 
world  ? 

We  cannot  do  this  without  depriving  man  of 
something  great,  of  an  indispensable  spiritual  help. 
It  is  the  same  with  classic  Greece.     Its  time  was 


EXAMINATION   OF   THE   IDEAL     131 

limited,  the  period  of  its  bloom  short ;  but  this 
brief  period  produced  eternal  values  without 
which  modern  civilisation  would  be  greatly  im- 
poverished. How  far  different  ages  and  individuals 
will  assimilate  these  vital  contents  is  another 
question.  They  are  certainly  not  dead  things, 
but  living  possibilities,  permanent  requirements, 
facts  which,  once  brought  into  the  human  sphere, 
can  never  disappear  from  it.  Any  man  who  looks 
beyond  these  questions  to  a  timeless  world  will 
remember  Goethe's  words  : 

"  The  man  who  from  three  thousand  years 
No  lesson  for  his  lite  can  wrest 
Lies  in  the  dark,  in  inexperience, 
Trudging  his  way  from  day  to  day." 

Something  beyond  the  historical  breaks  upon  a 
man  in  history.  In  the  human  chronicle  we 
detect  a  chronicle  of  the  spirit,  which  puts  us  in 
a  new  order,  in  a  life  with  eternal  relations  (sub 
specie  aeternitatis).  Whilst  wave  follows  wave  in 
human  history,  without  any  connection  between 
them  by  higher  aims,  the  history  of  the  spirit 
undertakes  to  give  life  substance  and  value  and 
independence,  to  find  it  support  as  well  as  con- 
tinuity. It  is  only  from  this  point  of  view  that 
something  like  an  organisation  of  history  can  be 
obtained,  and  that  primitive  revelations  of  life 
may  be  distinguished  from  each  other  and  com- 
bined   in    the    whole.     From    this    point    of   view 


132         SOCIALISM:   AN  ANALYSIS 

there  must  be  a  complete  return  of  life  from  the 
immediate  things  of  sense  to  the  immediate  things 
of  the  spirit.  It  is  only  a  confirmed  change  of 
this  kind  that  can  prevent  our  whole  human  effort 
from  drifting  into  the  current  of  mere  evolution 
and  sinking,  after  a  brief  spell  of  brightness,  into 
the  abyss  of  nothing ;  and  that  is  true  both  of 
the  individual  and  the  race. 

But  these  problems,  which  are  essential  to  the 
spiritual  life,  do  not  exist  for  Socialism.  It  is 
concerned  entirely  with  the  historical  movement 
which  is  due  to  mere  existence.  Its  work  has 
no  spiritual  background.  Everything  it  does 
affects  only  the  limited  surface  of  life.  The 
"  materialistic "  philosophy  of  history  of  Marx 
and  Engels  does  not  go  beyond  this.  Yet  all  this 
must  not  prevent  us  from  recognising  that  Socialism 
has  done  much  valuable  work  in  the  province 
of  empirical  history  by  means  of  its  criticisms, 
its  liberation  from  restrictions,  and  its  rejection 
of  superfluous  ballast ;  though  even  in  this  province 
it  applies  standards  that  are  too  narrow,  and  it 
lacks  that  sense  of  justice  which  is  above  all  party 
strife. 


§4 
THE    LIMITS    OF   SOCIALIST   EQUALITY 

The  idea  of  equality  is  one  of  the  chief  elements 
of  the  Socialist  ideal,  and  it  has  had  a  great 
influence  upon  both  thought  and  conduct.  Its 
principal  aim  is  to  attack  all  artificial  distinctions, 
to  get  rid  of  all  imaginary  and  unjustified  privileges, 
to  meet  all  obstacles  and  disturbances  with  the 
idea  of  our  common  human  nature  as  a  settled 
basis.  When  this  is  not  done,  the  forces  of  pro- 
gress are  dammed,  the  consciousness  of  inter- 
connection is  lowered,  and  a  man's  joy  in  his 
work  is  destroyed.  It  is  a  question,  not  merely 
of  individual  actions,  but  of  fundamental  con- 
victions and  whole  systems  of  thought.  We  shall 
see,  however,  that  here  again  Socialism  conceives 
the  matter  superficially,  and  that  it  encounters 
many  obstacles ;  and  that  sometimes  it  attains  a 
result  the  opposite  of  what  it  had  intended.  There 
are,  in  particular,  the  following  points  that  require 
explanation. 
1.  At  the  very   basis   of  this   idea   of  equality 

133 


184         SOCIALISM  :   AN   ANALYSIS 

there  is  a  contradiction  which  is  dangerous  to  the 
whole  structure.  What  is  the  root,  the  moral 
title,  of  the  idea  of  equality  ?  Is  it  in  a  higher 
spiritual  order  or  in  the  province  of  experience  ? 
The  older  idea  of  equality  chose  the  former  alter- 
native. It  was  rooted  in  God  as  the  source  of 
all  life  or  in  reason  as  a  cosmic  force  ;  but  Socialism 
has  nothing  to  do  with  these  things.  God  it 
regards  as  a  mythological  idea  :  in  reason  it  sees 
a  product  of  human  presentation  which  cannot 
transcend  its  own  sphere.  There  remains  ex- 
perience alone  to  justify  the  claim  of  equality. 

But  experience  shows  us  men  unequal  every- 
where ;  nature  and  civilisation  are  at  one  in 
making  life  more  and  more  unequal.  Now  experience 
is  for  Socialism  the  source  and  justification  of 
all  ideas,  and  this  puts  it  in  the  following  dilemma  : 
If  it  recognises  any  sort  of  equality  of  all  human 
beings,  it  must  appeal  to  some  kind  of  spiritual 
force  and  run  counter  to  experience,  whereas  if 
it  adheres  to  experience,  it  must  follow  it  and 
shape  its  conduct  and  claims  by  it.  This  con- 
tradiction is  inevitable  unless  experience  can  bring 
about,  empirically,  a  complete  equality  of  all  men 
and  conditions.  This  would  be,  if  logically  carried 
out,  thorough  Communism  as  proposed  by  Babeuf, 
and  indeed  Communism  is  the  most  logical  form 
of  Socialism.  But  how  mankind  and  civilisation 
would  fare  under  such  a  system  we  need  hardly 


EXAMINATION   OF  THE   IDEAL     135 

inquire.  It  follows  that  there  is  no  possibility 
of  reconciling  reason  and  experience  in  the  prob- 
lem of  equality.  Nietzsche  saw  more  clearly 
than  most  of  his  contemporaries  when  he  said 
that  the  disappearance  of  the  idea  of  God  deprives 
the  idea  of  equality  of  all  justification. 

2.  The  decisive  question  is  whether  the  collective 
life  is  in  one  or  two  stages  :   that  is  to  say,  whether 
differences    all    lie  on  one  plane,  or  whether  it  is 
possible  and  desirable  to  have  a  gradation  of  such 
a    kind    that    some    higher    unity    stimulates    the 
individual  elements  to  action  and  influences  them 
by   its   own   powers.     A   one-stage   structure   will 
refer  all  life  and  conduct  directly  to  the  individuals 
and   forbid   any   differentiation   of  society.     Com- 
munism is,  on  that  ideal,  the  simplest  and  most 
direct  way.     On  the  other  hand,   in  a  two-stage 
structure  it  is   possible   to   have   adjustment   and 
combination.     A  higher  whole  is  active,   but  the 
individual  may  regard  this  whole  as  his  own  affair, 
and  may  feel  that,  however  subordinate  he  may 
be,  he  is  a  member  of  the  whole.     It  is,  in  fact, 
only  on  such  a  basis  that  we  can  have  the  ideas 
of   right    and   duty.     The    one-stage    theory    puts 
the  right  of  the  individual  before  duty,  and  it  is 
plain  that  in  such  a  case  the  idea  of  right  itself 
has  no  rights  ;  that  the  decision  rests  with  might, 
not  right.     It  is  only  a  two-stage  order  that  can 
guarantee   independence   both   to   the   whole   and 


136         SOCIALISM:   AN  ANALYSIS 

to  the  individual  elements.  The  individual  will, 
of  course,  have  a  secondary  position  in  it,  but 
as  a  member  of  the  whole  he  will  be  more  than  a 
mere  point,  and  he  will  feel  that  he  is  co-operating 
with  the  whole.  Look  at  the  structure  of  the 
Catholic  Church.  Each  individual  priest  may, 
in  virtue  of  his  ordination,  regard  himself  as  a 
co-operating  element  of  the  whole  and  therefore 
ascribe  the  highest  value  to  his  action,  but  this 
does  not  in  the  least  prevent  him  from  occupying 
a  very  modest  place  in  the  structure. 

The  Socialist  ideal  vacillates  between  a  one- 
stage  and  a  two-stage  structure,  because  it  clings 
to  the  idea  of  a  whole,  but  regards  it  merely  as 
a  collection  of  individuals,  and  can  therefore  give 
it  no  independent  content.  It  falls  inevitably 
under  the  power  of  the  individual  elements,  the 
mere  aggregation  of  which  it  cannot  overcome. 
The  prosperity  of  the  whole  must  be  measured  by 
the  interests  of  the  individuals,  and  this  is  in 
flagrant  contradiction  to  the  main  idea.  This 
identification  of  an  aggregation  of  individuals 
with  an  independent  whole  is  bound  to  lead 
to  contradictions  and  confusion  at  every  step. 

Let  us  take  the  suffrage,  for  instance.  The  State 
as  a  whole  is  bound  to  seek  such  an  arrangement 
as  will  best  serve  its  purposes  and  its  interests. 
The  individuals  as  so  many  rational  beings  endowed 
with  independence  must  not,  it  is  true,   be  for- 


EXAMINATION   OF   THE   IDEAL     137 

gotten  in  this  arrangement,  but  the  decision  rests 
mainly  with  the  whole.  It  was  a  sign  of  the  in- 
cipient dissolution  of  the  traditional  order  when 
a  Prussian  minister  described  adult  suffrage  as  a 
fundamental  right  of  all.  In  the  prevailing  confusion 
of  ideas  he  himself  scarcely  noticed  that  he  was 
rejecting  the  basic  principle  of  the  Prussian  State 
— the  subordination  of  the  individual  to  the  whole. 
This  question,  whether  the  individual  is  to  get 
everything  directly  and  in  virtue  of  his  association 
in  the  whole,  has  very  serious  consequences  for 
the  complexion  of  the  collective  life.  The  educa- 
tional system  will  have  different  features  according 
as  a  collective  state,  superior  to  the  individuals, 
sets  up  a  sphere  of  common  instruction  or  the 
curriculum  is  to  be  as  far  as  possible  equally 
applied  to  individuals.  A  good  deal  cannot  be 
given  equally  to  all,  but  it  is  not  the  less  important 
to  the  whole  on  that  account.  Higher  mathe- 
matics cannot  possibly  be  communicated  to  all ; 
not  merely  from  lack  of  time,  but  from  lack  of 
ability  for  it.  Are  we  to  think  less  on  that  account 
of  the  value  of  higher  mathematics  ?  Civilisation 
would  be  incalculably  impoverished  if  we  were  to 
judge  things  by  that  standard.  In  this  as  in  other 
respects  we  see  that  it  is  to  the  interest  of  the 
whole  to  divide  the  collective  life  into  a  higher 
and  a  lower  stage. 

Such  a  division  is  objectionable  only  when  it 


138         SOCIALISM  :   AN   ANALYSIS 

is  made  in  the  interest  of  certain  classes,  not  of 
the  whole.     It  is  based  upon  the  need  of  entrust- 
ing the  care  of  the  spiritual   self-preservation  of 
mankind  to  a  limited  group  of  individuals.     This 
class  cannot  exist  and  do  its  work  properly  unless 
it  is  in  vital  relation  with  the  other  classes,  unless 
it  has  a  tradition,  and  unless  it  is  freed  from  the 
cares  of  material  life.     It  needs  also  very  thorough 
methods    of    thought,    not    merely    a    number    of 
individual  achievements.     And  are  we  to  abandon 
all  this  for  the  sake  of  the  illusion  of  a  classless 
society   which   would   soon   prove   to   be   without 
culture    and    spirituality  ?     Even    the    individual 
elements    fare   better  when  there  is  a  gradation. 
It  is  only  an  extraordinary  sort  of  optimism  that 
can  look  for  the  salvation  of  humanity  by   any 
other  method.     Aristotle,  in  his  clear  and  penetrat- 
ing way,  pointed  out  long  ago  the  logical  fallacy 
of  Communism.     It   is   in   the   ambiguity   of  the 
word   "all."     It  suggests  not  only   all  taken  to- 
gether,    but    each    taken    by    himself    (iravTes    &<; 
e/cao-ros)  ;    and   this   gives   the  idea  of  a  common 
possession  two  different  meanings.     In  few  cases 
has  passion  been  so  stirred  by  a  fallacy  as  in  this 
case.     Socialism,    with   its    talk   about   the   whole 
while  it  puts  the  sum  of  individuals  instead  of  the 
whole,  finds  itself  in  an  untenable  middle  position. 
3.  This    recognition    of    an    essential    difference 
between   society   as   a  whole  and  the  sum   of  its 


EXAMINATION   OF   THE   IDEAL     139 

elements  enables  us  to  appreciate  fully  the  diversity 
of  the  conditions  of  life,  as  experience  presents 
them  to  us.  Socialism  regards  this  diversity  as 
a  matter  of  no  consequence.  It  gives  us  an  in- 
accurate version  of  it,  and  ignores  the  significance 
of  the  various  starting  points  and  lines  which 
it  affects  to  conduct.  It  was  the  special  strength 
of  ancient  thought  that  it  clearly  described  these 
vital  conditions  in  their  entirety.  This  was  in 
harmony  with  its  tendency  to  regard  reality  as 
realm  of  self-contained  forms  and  to  demand  per- 
fectly sharp  frontiers.  In  this,  it  is  true,  it  often 
conceived  the  distinctions  too  rigidly ;  it  over- 
looked connecting  shades  between  definite  types, 
and  did  not  sufficiently  recognise  the  changes  and 
developments  of  phenomena  in  all  their  fluidity. 
In  particular,  it  did  not  do  full  justice  to  the 
infinity  of  the  individual. 

Yet  the  fact  remains  that  experience  shows 
us  a  great  diversity  of  movements  and  tendencies. 
This  diversity  may  serve  us  as  a  means  to  make 
life  fluid  and  tractable,  and  at  the  same  time  to 
give  us  more  nearly  correct  views  of  it.  Obliterat- 
ing these  differences  and  antitheses  easily  leads 
to  a  dreary  monotony.  The  thinkers  of  antiquity 
agreed  in  distinguishing  between  a  nobler  and  an 
ordinary  frame  of  mind  :  one  directed  to  the  beauti- 
ful, and  one  to  the  useful.  In  the  one  case  conduct 
found  satisfaction  in  itself :    in  the  other  it  looked 


140         SOCIALISM  :   AN  ANALYSIS 

to  external  objects.  From  the  soul  of  this  older 
culture  came  the  words  of  Aristotle  :  "  It  is  the 
part  of  a  free  and  high-minded  man  to  seek,  not 
the  useful,  but  the  beautiful."  This  acute  student 
of  men  has  ably  described  the  chief  types  of  human 
conduct,  and  has  distinguished  five  principal  shades 
of  thought  and  character :  great,  good,  those  who 
love  honour  and  power,  those  who  are  intent 
on  gain  and  enjoyment,  and,  finally,  criminal 
natures.  The  truth  of  this  division  is  supported 
by  the  fact  that  it  has  been  substantially  preserved 
in  the  tradition  of  the  Catholic  Church.  In  all 
this  there  is  a  good  deal  of  knowledge  and 
experience  of  life  that  we  do  not  find  in  people 
who  talk   about   equality. 

Reference  to  this  diversity  brings  us  to  the 
problem  of  greatness,  which  was  much  discussed 
in  ancient  times,  and  has  been  much  discussed 
in  our  own  day.  The  older  thinkers  meant  by 
it  especially  a  superiority  to  fate  and  the  accidents 
of  life  :  modern  thinkers  lay  more  stress  on  the 
power  of  original  production. 

They  agree,  however,  in  recognising  that  great- 
ness is  rare  and  exceptional,  and  that  it  differs 
in  quality,  not  merely  quantitatively,  from  the 
common  type  ;  and  this  gives  us  a  characteristic 
view  of  the  process  of  life.  Genuine  creativeness 
is  not  a  precipitate  of  the  average  mass.  It  derives 
its  power  from  its  own  soul  and  from  the  spiritual 


EXAMINATION   OF   THE   IDEAL     141 

contacts  of  life.  It  has  to  fight  unceasingly  against 
the  stupid  and  inert,  often  jealous  and  hostile, 
mass  ;  and  the  struggle  is  full  of  grave  tragedies. 
It  was  not  individuals,  but  the  masses,  who  con- 
demned Socrates  and  Jesus. 

Great  men  are,  from  an  external  point  of  view, 
rare  exceptions.  To  others  they  seem  merely  unin- 
telligible fanatics.  In  reality  they  are  the  normal : 
the  first  condition  of  the  ascent  of  life  to  a  higher 
stage.  They  alone  protect  the  interests  of  the 
spiritual,  open  out  new  prospects  and  possibilities, 
and    enkindle  original  life  from  their  fiery  souls. 

It  is  owing  to  these  higher  souls  who  rise  above 
the  mist  of  the  average  that  there  is  a  general 
feeling  of  dissatisfaction,  and  that  this  puts  some 
movement  into  ordinary  life.  It  is  an  entire 
mistake  to  think  that  the  normal  and  the  average 
are  the  same  thing.  The  average  is  content 
with  what  Goethe  calls  "  that  mediocrity  which 
is  hateful  to  God  and  men."  Against  it  Nietzsche 
flung  out  the  words:  "Life  will  build  itself  up 
into  the  heights  with  columns  and  stages.  It 
would  look  into  the  far  beyond,  to  the  blessed 
beauties,  so  it  must  rise.  And  because  it  must 
rise,  it  needs  stages,  it  needs  men  to  rise.  Rise 
it  will  and,  in  rising,  overcome  itself." 

To  this  gradation  of  aims  there  corresponds 
a  gradation  of  moods.  Here  again  there  may 
be   a  whole  world   between   different  individuals  : 


142         SOCIALISM  :   AN  ANALYSIS 

vast  distances,  heights,  and  depths  may  separate 
them.  There  runs  through  the  whole  of  life 
the  antithesis  of  dependent  and  independent 
spirituality  :  the  antithesis  of  an  effort  to  share 
the  infinity  of  life  and  get  into  touch  with  the 
whole,  and  an  effort  to  reach  a  comfortable  state 
of  equilibrium  as  quickly  as  possible.  To  the 
one  work  is  a  painful  necessity  with  a  view  to 
material  and  social  life  :  to  the  other  it  is  the  very 
soul  and  joy  of  life.  Justified  as  Socialism  was 
in  refusing  to  strain  the  distance  between  physical 
and  intellectual  work,  it  does,  in  point  of  fact, 
make  a  great  difference  whether  we  trust  merely 
to  material  possessions  to  help  men  or  look  to  a 
development  of  the  spiritual  life.  Step  by  step 
we  must  fight  a  tendency  that  "  seems  to  be  in 
favour  of  an  equalising  justice,  but  in  reality  may 
easily  become  an  injustice  to  higher  things."  Let 
us  not  forget  that  jealousy  and  envy  are  ever  at 
work  in  the  average  levels  of  life  and  that,  in  the 
words  of  Goethe :  "  The  most  envious  person 
in  the  world  is  the  man  who  thinks  everybody 
his  equal."  Aristotle  also  rightly  warned  us  not 
to  treat  equals  unequally  nor  to  treat  unequals 
equally. 

Socialism  seeks  as  near  an  equality  as  possible, 
and  it  very  rightly  wishes  for  this  purpose  to  raise 
the  general  level  and  lift  as  many  as  possible  to 
the  heights  of  life  and  culture,  without  lowering 


EXAMINATION   OF   THE   IDEAL     143 

these  heights.  But  the  nature  of  things  is  stronger 
than  the  wishes  of  men.  Unwittingly  the  con- 
dition of  those  who  receive  becomes  the  standard 
of  the  process,  and  the  state  of  the  whole  inevitably 
sinks.  It  is  impossible  to  make  this  effort  chiefly 
in  the  form  of  influencing  others  without  suffering 
some  loss  oneself.  Work  that  is  mainly  taken 
up  with  instructing  and  propagating  unavoidably 
loses  in  quality.  Deep  original  conviction  and 
the  instruction  of  others  must  be  strictly  pro- 
portioned to  each  other,  and  the  leading  place 
must  be  assigned  to  conviction. 

4.  In  fine,  we  must  not  forget  to  notice  a 
certain  contradiction  which  follows  from  the  inner- 
most feelings  connected  with  the  idea  of  equality. 
People  always  speak  about  equality,  but  in  reality 
no  one  means  mere  equality.  He  wants  more, 
especially  more  power.  The  demand  of  equality 
is  generally  inspired  by  the  wish  to  rise  from  a 
lower  to  a  higher  level.  Those  who  have  something 
to  gain  by  it  are  the  most  zealous  for  it.  When 
they  reach  the  desired  stage,  however,  they  wish 
to  push  further.  The  workers  at  first  set  up  as 
their  goal  the  attainment  of  an  equality  with 
the  other  citizens  of  the  State.  This  no  longer 
contents  them  ;  they  want  to  rule  the  middle  class, 
and  even  think  it  unreasonable  that  anybody 
should  demur  to  this.  In  the  end  we  get  the 
dictatorship  of  the  proletariat — a  dictatorship  with- 


144         SOCIALISM:  AN  ANALYSIS 

out  a  dictator.  What  has  now  become  of  the  ideal 
of  equality  which  was  the  starting  point  ?  It 
is    a  mere  equality  in  slavery. 

5.  The  real  and  right  meaning  of  this  aiming 
at  equality  can  only  be  learned  from  history.     As 
we  have  repeatedly  seen,  it  is  not  the  first  time 
that   there   has   been   an   idea   of  improving  and 
sustaining  life  by  an  appeal  to  the  reason  which  is 
immanent  in  men.     There  is,  clearly,  a  very  broad 
analogy  between  the  later  period  of  the  ancient 
world  and  the  modern  spirit.     At  that  time  there 
were  grave  struggles,  and  man  turned  upon  him- 
self and  found  support  in  a  strong  self-conscious- 
ness.    Ancient   and   modern   thought   do   not,    of 
course,  coincide.      The   one  was  the  evening  of  a 
rich  civilisation  which  had  substantially  run  its 
course,   but   our   modern   culture  feels  that   it  is 
rather  the  dawn  of  an  age  that  comes  on  with  all 
the  strength  of  youth.     Ancient  thought  had  not 
the  problem  of  breaking  with  a  traditional  culture  ; 
it  had  only  to  make  things  clearer,  to  collate  things, 
to    make   them   the  property  of  the  race  and  of 
each     individual.     The     modern     mind,     on    the 
contrary,  found  itself  confronting  a  vast  mass  of 
facts  which   were  out  of  harmony  with  its  needs 
and    demands,    and    it    had    inevitably    to    break 
with    these.     In   the    confusion   that   ensued   the 
humanitarian  idea  seemed  to  be  the  only  hope 
of  salvation.    This,  however,  brought  on  the  idea 


EXAMINATION   OF  THE   IDEAL     145 

of  equality,  and  it  obtained  an  immense  influence 
over  the  souls  of  men.  It  was  hailed  as  a  great 
emancipation.  It  has,  in  point  of  fact,  done 
a  vast  amount  in  the  way  of  improvement  and 
in  suppressing  unreason  and   superstition. 

Any  man  who  would  fully  appreciate  the  influence 
of  the  dream  of  equality  must  examine  it  from 
this  point  of  view.  It  was  a  frame  of  mind  that 
could  hail  Rousseau  as,  in  the  words  of  Schiller, 
"  the  man  who  made  men  out  of  Christians." 
Even  the  literature  of  our  classical  period  was  at 
first  touched  by  this  influence  of  the  movement. 
Then,  however,  came  the  opposite  tendency  to- 
ward the  historical,  the  positive,  the  individual. 
People  were  tired  of  the  intellectualism  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  and  they  wanted  a  more 
satisfying,  a  more  highly  coloured,  a  more  original 
life.  They  enriched  their  minds  from  their  own 
history,  and  thus  they  brought  about  the  nationalist 
movement  and  all  that  it  achieved,  as  well  as  its 
dangers. 

The  nationalist  idea  was  at  first  of  a  predomin- 
antly spiritual  character.  For  some  time  the 
question  of  power,  of  economic  development,  etc., 
was  in  the  background.  Even  Fichte  wanted  to 
restrict  Germans  as  much  as  possible  to  their 
own  sphere.  World-commerce  seemed  to  him  to 
be  dangerous,  and  he  regarded  the  absence  of 
colonies  as  an  advantage.    That  could   not  last 

10 


146         SOCIALISM  :   AN  ANALYSIS 

long.  The  development  of  life  necessitated  closer 
contact  with  material  things.  This  drove  the 
movement  along  the  lines  of  realism,  and  con- 
sequently along  the  line  of  interests  and  conflicts. 
The  old  idealism  disappeared.  The  idea  of  power 
and  greatness  urged  on  the  nations  with  demonic 
energy.  Peaceful  co-operation  gave  place  to  a 
stern  world-rivalry :  in  the  end  the  terrible  world- 
war  from  which  we  have  just  emerged.  By  a 
reaction  upon  this  the  humanitarian  and  equali- 
tarian  idea  has  gained  fresh  strength ;  it  is  supported 
by  the  economic  struggle  of  the  advancing  workers. 
The  idea  of  human  brotherhood  came  into  vogue 
once  more. 

But  all  this  has  resulted  in  a  state  of  chaos 
from  which  nothing  but  a  superior  spiritual  force 
can  extricate  us.  On  the  one  hand  we  have 
the  spirit  of  the  eighteenth  century  come  to 
life  again,  though  its  fine  intellectuality  and 
utilitarianism  will  never  satisfy  us  in  spite  of 
all  the  improvements  and  the  enrichment  of 
our  idea  of  reality.  On  the  other  hand,  we 
find  ourselves  bound  up  with  the  positive, 
the  individual,  the  actual,  which  yields  us  no 
guiding  aims.  Socialism  coincides  with  the 
eighteenth  century  in  its  intellectualism  and  ideal 
of  equality.  It  is  right  in  so  far  as  it  holds  up 
an  ideal  of  co-operation  against  the  prevailing 
hostility  of  nations ;    it  is  wrong  in  so  far  as  it 


EXAMINATION   OF  THE   IDEAL     147 

would  subject  all  individuality  and  historical 
achievement  to  these  general  ideas,  and  can  give 
no  assured  substance  to  its  humanitarianism. 
Hence  it  is  that  we  are  torn  to-day  between  an 
intellectualism  without  roots  and  a  naturalist 
Positivism.  The  only  thing  that  can  remedy  this 
paralysing  cleavage  is  an  idealistic  Positivism, 
which  promises  a  more  vital  substance  and  a  com- 
prehensive goal  to  the  humanitarian  idea. 

The  Socialist  ideal  is  not  capable  of  solving  this 
problem,  if  it  be  only  because  it  recognises  no 
independent  spiritual  world,  and  is  therefore  re- 
stricted entirely  to  material  things.  Hence  the 
ideal  is,  for  all  its  claim  of  equality,  a  much  too 
abstract  and  superficial  scheme  of  life.  This  is 
particularly  true  of  its  conception  of  man  himself. 
Our  conception  of  man  must  assume  an  individual 
character  on  the  basis  of  a  world  of  action.  The 
fact  that  on  this  particular  planet  there  are  in- 
numerable beings  who  have  certain  special  features 
of  their  own  as  distinguished  from  the  animals 
most  nearly  related  to  them  is  not  enough  to 
exact  respect  and  reverence  for  the  idea.  It  must 
above  all  be  recognised  that  by  a  revolutionary 
advance  of  life  in  this  field  there  has  appeared  a 
world  of  action,  promising  an  even  greater  develop- 
ment. We  have,  moreover,  to  appreciate  the 
special  nature  and  experiences  of  this  province  of 
life.  We  have  to  see  that  there  are  here  two  stages 


148         SOCIALISM:   AN  ANALYSIS 

of  life,  and  that  the  conjunction  of  them  gives 
rise  to  difficult  problems,  but  also  affords  an 
insight  into  further  depths.  Upon  those  founda- 
tions, under  those  standards,  we  have  to  range 
whatever  experience  we  have  had  of  historical  de- 
velopment. Abstract  humanitarianism  is  wrecked 
upon  those  problems.  When  it  emptily  discusses 
them,  Socialism  is  out  of  accord  both  with  the 
richness  of  reality  and  with  the  historical  situation 
of  humanity. 

It  is  just  the  same  in  regard  to  the  relation 
between  man  and  the  world.  A  nation  is  not 
a  mere  aggregation  or  collection  of  different  men 
who  are  enclosed  within  a  common  frontier.  It 
needs  an  inner  continuity,  a  common  life  of  the 
whole.  Unless  it  has  this,  the  richest  resources 
are  undeveloped.  Remember  the  words  of 
Schleiermacher  :  "  It  is  only  the  man  who  knows 
the  mind  of  his  own  nation  that  can  find  a  true 
joy  in  the  affairs  of  the  race.  ...  A  nation  is  a 
permanent  growth  in  the  garden  of  God.  It  out- 
lives many  a  dreary  winter  which  robs  it  of  its 
green  garment,  and  often  of  its  flowers  and  fruit." 
Certainly  we  want  international  ideals,  but  not 
the  kind  of  internationalism  which  surrenders 
all  the  characteristic  features  of  nations  and 
seeks  greatness  precisely  in  this  thin-blooded  life. 

This  abstract  thought,  with  its  dream  of  equality, 
enters  into  every  branch  and  section  of  the  com- 


EXAMINATION   OF   THE   IDEAL     149 

munity.  It  has  no  idea  of  forming  independent 
groups.  It  will  tolerate  no  strong  middle  class, 
but  sees  in  it  only  a  collection  of  so  many  indi- 
viduals who  have  no  special  history  and  no 
special  tasks.  It  enables  quantity  to  triumph 
over  quality.  It  is  indifferent  to  all  that  is  indi- 
vidual, direct,  original.  Thus  we  come  back 
always  to  the  conviction  that  a  real  equality 
can  be  derived  only  from  spiritual  contacts,  and 
that  the  idea  of  a  naturalist  equality  is  self- 
contradictory. 


§5 
THE    PROBLEM    OF    SOCIALISATION 

The  Socialist  ideal  reaches  its  highest  point 
in  socialisation.  In  this  it  combines  the  tech- 
nical power  of  the  economic  world  and  the  funda- 
mental qualities  of  conviction.  The  modern 
tendency  toward  the  sovereignty  of  the  individual 
has  experienced  a  severe  check.  The  tendency 
now  is  to  give  authority  and  influence  to  a  higher 
whole.  This  affects  even  the  mood  of  the  indi- 
vidual :  man  feels  himself  helpless  and  abandoned 
in  face  of  appalling  evils.  The  economic  world 
is,  on  account  of  its  sharp  antagonisms,  especially 
affected,  and  it  is  therefore  no  wonder  that  the 
idea  of  a  stronger  concentration  of  the  scattered 
and  often  conflicting  elements  has  a  consider- 
able and  increasing  influence.  The  working  class, 
moreover,  has  become  independent,  and  this  has 
urged  life  on  to  new  lines  and  promises  to  uplift 
the  entire  race.  There  is  unmistakably  a  great 
movement  in  this  direction. 

150 


EXAMINATION   OF   THE   IDEAL     151 

But  it  would  be  remarkable  if  a  situation 
which  so  strongly  agitates  the  minds  of  men 
could  be  easily  reconciled  with  other  require- 
ments. There  is  danger  of  a  narrowing  of  life. 
It  threatens  to  bring  great  and  necessary  things 
under  the  control  of  a  party  and  thus  endanger 
their  rational  elements.  We  will  consider  these 
dangers  in  succession. 

1.  In  the  first  place  there  is  a  serious  con- 
tradiction in  the  fundamental  idea.  The  move- 
ment for  socialisation  is  supposed  to  proceed  from 
the  whole  to  the  individual,  as  it  is  from  the 
whole  alone  that  decisive  help  can  come.  But 
we  have  already  seen  that  on  this  point  the 
Socialist  ideal  falls  to  pieces.  Such  a  combi- 
nation as  socialisation  aims  at  cannot  come  from 
the  elements  and  the  connection  of  these,  but 
only  from  an  independent  whole.  If  there  is 
no  such  whole,  the  movement  has  no  solid  founda- 
tion, and  the  structure  will  not  stand.  But  the 
Socialist  ideal  has  no  room  for  a  life  from  within 
and  from  the  whole,  and  therefore  the  con- 
centration which  is  intended  has  no  soul,  the 
enterprise  has  no  background.  All  action  is  con- 
fined to  the  surface.  There  are  no  uplifting 
spiritual  forces  to  overcome  the  friction  of  the 
elements.  This  would  be  fatal  to  the  whole 
scheme.  It  might  give  a  semblance  of  com- 
bination, but  it  cannot  give  the  full  reality.     At 


152         SOCIALISM  :   AN   ANALYSIS 

this    point,    therefore,    the    philosophy    and    the 
social  aim  part  company. 

2.  The  Socialist  philosophy  is  apt  to  regard 
the  action  of  the  individual  as  of  no  consequence 
and  as  the  outcome  of  mere  selfishness.  In  point 
of  fact,  not  only  is  the  capability  of  the  indi- 
vidual necessary  for  the  physical  maintenance 
and  the  stimulation  of  forces  in  the  struggle  for 
life,  but  it  is  indispensable,  for  the  full  develop- 
ment of  souls,  to  form  an  independent  province 
of  the  individual's  capacity.  That  is  the  only 
way  to  make  him  a  living  member  of  reality. 
A  spiritual  individuality  ought  to  be  regarded 
as  an  original  source  of  unlimited  vitality.  It 
has  a  direct  value  in  itself.  Aristotle  rightly 
said  that  nothing  so  stimulates  a  man  to  action 
as  his  own  property  and  the  object  of  his  affec- 
tion. Adam  Smith's  attempt  to  trace  all  action 
to  the  aims  of  individuals  certainly  failed,  but 
his  power  of  awakening  and  stimulating  forces 
is  a  fact.  To  ennoble  the  rivalry  and  make  it 
a  great  help,  not  only  for  utilitarian  purposes 
but  in  the  service  of  beauty,  was  one  of  the  chief 
aims  of  the  ancient  world  ;  and  our  own  system 
of  education  might  well  copy  it.  Can  Socialism 
do  this  ?  Will  it  not  lessen  the  effectiveness  ? 
Will  it  not  restrict  the  free  movement  of  indi- 
viduals and  reduce  their  joy  in  their  work  ? 

3.  Socialisation  relies  upon  the  power  and  justice 


EXAMINATION   OF   THE   IDEAL     153 

of  the  economic  order  which  it  would  set  up. 
It  expects  this  order  to  attract  to  itself  every- 
thing that  can  promote  the  continuity  of  work 
and  the  spirit  of  the  workers.  It  is  quite  right 
in  discarding  the  older  type  of  idealism,  which 
relied  exclusively  on  the  good  feeling  of  indi- 
viduals. In  view  of  the  grave  dangers  and  mis- 
understandings of  our  time  this  would  certainly 
not  be  enough ;  we  need  a  vigorous  extension 
of  the  sphere  of  collective  life.  Yet  written  laws 
and  material  institutions  will  not  succeed  in  touch- 
ing the  deeper  part  of  a  man,  in  winning  the 
soul  for  the  highest  purposes.  We  must  bring 
into  action  continuous  spiritual  forces  :  we  have 
to  raise  the  whole  man,  the  inner  man,  to  a 
higher  level.  Thoughts  and  sentiments  must  work 
together  to  bring  about  an  inner  revolution,  and 
to  oppose  the  greater  self  of  the  spirit  to  the 
lesser  self  of  nature. 

In  connection  with  these  problems  we  are  again 
painfully  conscious  of  the  shortcomings  of 
Socialism  in  confusing  higher  and  lower  things, 
spirit  and  nature.  In  its  practical  application 
the  higher  features  are  not  kept  together,  and 
do  not  work  by  the  force  of  a  common  world. 
As  an  illustration  we  may  take  the  distinction 
between  a  lower  and  a  higher  type  in  sympathy 
and  love.  Sympathy  as  a  natural  sentiment  has 
no     uplifting     moral     value.      Kant     and     other 


154         SOCIALISM  :   AN  ANALYSIS 

thinkers  have  justly  pointed  out  that  the  common 
type  of  sympathy  is  casual  and  incidental,  whereas 
the  kind  of  sympathy  urged  in  the  religions  of 
India  is  quite  a  different  thing ;  it  is  based  upon 
a  special  relation  to  universal  life  and  derives 
great  power  from  the  development  of  this  re- 
lation. It  is  the  same  with  Christianity.  What 
is  usually  called  "  love "  is,  as  a  rule,  closely 
connected  with  a  lower  natural  impulse,  and 
does  little  for  life  as  a  whole.  But  what  is 
called,  in  a  special  sense,  Christian  charity  is 
rooted  in  the  power  of  a  creative  world-will, 
which  brings  individuals  together  with  an  up- 
lifting action  and  intimately  connects  them. 
When  men's  aims  and  conduct  have  not  some 
such  connecting  and  uplifting  bond,  all  our  laws 
and  institutions  may  have  only  a  superficial  and 
external  effect.  However  valuable  and  indispensable 
the  affairs  of  the  material  world  may  be,  they 
cannot  properly  attain  their  end  except  in  con- 
nection with  an  invisible  world. 

Socialism,  with  its  rejection  of  religion,  or  its 
declaration  that  religion  is  a  private  concern, 
is  particularly  unfitted  to  derive  advantage  from 
the  stimulation  it  affords,  and  to  build  up  an 
independent  inner  life.  Hence,  while  its  scheme 
of  socialisation  may  hold  men  together  externally, 
it  cannot  fill  them  with  the  spirit  of  love  and 
thus  bind  them  intimately  to  each  other. 


EXAMINATION   OF   THE   IDEAL     155 

4/^Moreover,  Socialism  takes  too  narrow  a  view 
of  the  complex  web  of  human  life>  It  ignores 
the  many  differences  and  antitheses  which  are 
found  throughout  life,  and  on  the  reciprocal  action 
of  which  the  full  success  of  life  depends.  Let 
us  consider  the  chief  points  in  this  connection. 

(a)  Life  does  not  treat  man  as  a  particular 
piece  in  a  continuous  mass,  but  it  requires  for 
his  development  some  sort  of  separateness,  a 
certain  distance  from  others.  He  must  have  a 
sphere  of  his  own  :  he  must  not  only  be  asso- 
ciated, but  dissociated.  Goethe  was  right  when 
he  said  :  "  Every  living  thing  makes  its  own 
atmosphere  about  it  "  and  "  Distinctiveness  evokes 
distinctiveness."  This  combination  of  attraction 
and  repulsion  gives  us  a  special  type  of  quality  ; 
it  has  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  professional 
class-consciousness,  but  is  essentially  required 
for  the  full  characterisation  of  life.  It  is  a  lower 
type  of  character  that  tries  to  blend  the  various 
streams  of  life.  All  great  thinkers  from  the 
earliest  times  have  been  opposed  to  this.  Aristotle 
considered  dependence  upon  other  men  mere  imi- 
tation of  others,  a  sign  of  an  inferior  character. 
German  humanism  at  its  height  was  strongly 
opposed  to  it,  and  created,  with  great  energy, 
independent  spheres  of  life.  "  Be  everything  to 
thyself,  or  thou  art  nothing,"  said  Fichte.  This 
separateness    and    individuality    of    life    may    be 


156         SOCIALISM  :   AN  ANALYSIS 

exaggerated,  as  it  was  amongst  the  Romanti- 
cists, but  it  is  absolutely  necessary  if  we  are  to 
have  independent  creative  work.  The  socialisation 
plan  has  no  room  for  it. 

(b)  The  course  of  our  inquiry  has  led  us  to 
the  relation  of  the  individual  to  his  social  en- 
vironment, and  has  thus  raised  the  problem  of 
the  psychology  of  the  crowd.  This  problem  has 
been  discussed  so  much  for  thousands  of  years 
that  we  need  not  go  deeply  into  it  here.  We 
will  deal  only  with  a  few  points  in  regard  to 
which  Socialism  is  in  conflict  with  the  demands 
of  philosophy.  It  appeals  confidently  to  col- 
lective reason  and  the  importance  of  "  public 
opinion,"  but  it  ignores  the  fact  that  it  is  not 
a  belief  in  the  reason  of  a  mass  of  men,  but  a 
belief  in  a  spirituality  that  is  active  in  the  human 
realm,  which  justifies  this  appeal.  It  is  only 
contact  with  some  spiritual  requirement  of  the 
historical  situation  that  gives  weight  to  public 
opinion  and  makes  it  superior  to  the  varying 
moods  of  individuals.  Of  itself  it  has  not  the 
slightest  guarantee  of  truth. 

The  mere  summing  up  of  opinions  does  not 
make  reason.  That  able  student  of  human  nature, 
Tocqueville,  rightly  said  that  passions  usually 
increase  with  the  number  of  the  individuals  which 
share  them,  and  that  a  majority  is  in  a  con- 
dition of  progressive  self-deification.     It  is  a  re- 


EXAMINATION   OF   THE   IDEAL     157 

markable  thing  that  in  spite  of  thousands  of 
years  of  experience  the  question  seems  to  be 
still  open.  Every  utterance  of  public  opinion 
is  hailed  as  an  indisputable  truth.  It  is  especially 
prone  to  treat  as  permanent  requirements  of 
human  nature  certain  ideas  which  are  in  harmony 
with  particular  tendencies.  That,  for  instance, 
democracy  meets  only  special  sections  and  duties 
of  political  life  was  pointed  out  long  ago,  with 
convincing  clearness,  by  Plato  ;  yet  innumerable 
people  still  regard  it  as  the  last  word  of  political 
wisdom  and  would  subject  the  whole  of  life  to  it. 

Hegel  was  certainly  right  when  he  said  that 
the  only  thing  we  can  learn  from  history  is  that 
neither  rulers  nor  peoples  have  ever  learned  any- 
thing from  it. 

The  relation  of  the  social  average  to  the  great 
personalities  of  historic  life  has  already  been  con- 
sidered. They  are  by  no  means  mere  mega- 
phones for  their  fellows.  They  are  not  mere 
summaries  of  contemporary  life.  They  bring  about 
a  radical  uplift  and  advance,  a  return  from  un- 
stable wavering  between  alternatives  to  a  solid 
and  clearly  conceived  reality.  Hegel  was  wrong 
when  he  said  :  "  He  who  utters  the  wishes  of 
his  age,  tells  them  to  it  and  realises  them,  is  the 
great  man  of  his  time."  The  work  of  the  great 
man  is  not  confined  to  teaching  people  the  con- 
tent of  life,  as  intellectuals  say,  for  in  that  case 


158         SOCIALISM  :   AN  ANALYSIS 

there  would  be  no  answer  to  the  question  in 
what  the  will  of  an  age  consists,  or  whether  an 
age  as  a  whole  can  have  any  will.  Is  it  not 
usually  driven  by  dark  and  confused  impulses 
until  some  outstanding  personality  sets  a  limit 
to  its  vagaries  and  gives  definite  aims  to  his 
fellows  ? 

(c)  In  fine,  the  individual  has  not  only  to  act 
within  society  :  he  may  be  in  opposition  to  it 
and  have  to  wage  a  stern  struggle  against  it. 
This  happens  particularly  when  the  general  human 
condition  no  longer  satisfies  the  life  that  appears 
on  special  heights  and  streams  from  them  ;  when 
some  inner  uplift,  even  a  revolution,  is  neces- 
sary. It  is  due  to  a  conviction  that  there  is  an 
independent  spirituality  at  work  in  men,  but 
that  in  the  ordinary  course  of  things  it  is  en- 
tangled in  various  relations  to  nature  and  society, 
and  it  is  only  on  the  highest  level  that  it  suc- 
ceeds in  attaining  an  entirely  independent  and 
victorious  spirituality,  and  can  thus  give  life  a 
firm  support  and  an  indisputable  value.  From 
this  comes  the  loftiness  of  the  spiritual  creative 
power,  of  the  inner  revelations,  which  we  have 
in  the  great  founders  of  religions  and  in  great 
artists  and  thinkers  of  the  type  of  Plato.  Their 
task  is  not  merely  to  do  something  great  amongst 
men,  but  to  make  something  great  out  of  men. 
That    was    the   work   of   personalities    who   were 


EXAMINATION   OF   THE    IDEAL      159 

firm  and  secure  in  their  spiritual  contacts.  They 
were  appointed  to  reach  the  heights  of  their  own 
nature  in  detachment  from  society  and  thus  to 
give  complete  independence  to  their  creative  work. 
Only  in  their  case  could  there  be  a  union  of  pro- 
found isolation  with  an  intimate  connection  with 
the  whole  :  a  struggle  against  ordinary  human 
nature  which  was  victorious  even  when  to  the 
outward  eye  they  seemed  to  fail.  They  lifted  life 
above  the  utilitarian  level  and  turned  the  useful 
into  a  blessing.  As  Kant  said  :  "  Everything,  even 
the  highest,  becomes  small  in  the  hands  of  men 
when  they  apply  the  idea  of  it  to  their  own  use." 
That  Socialism,  with  its  utilitarian  tendency,  knows 
nothing  of  these  problems,  though  they  are  indis- 
pensable to  humanity  as  a  whole,  is  only  another 
proof  of  its  limitations. 

5.  Socialism  has  every  right  to  press  the  idea 
of  the  whole  and  deny  that  it  splits  the  com- 
munity into  atoms,  but  it  narrows  the  idea  of 
the  whole  in  a  lamentable  fashion  and  thus  divides 
humanity  itself.  It  would  represent  the  whole 
race,  and  it  certainly  often  does  so  very  sincerely. 
But  its  identification  of  one  particular  party  with 
the  whole  community  is  bound  to  lead  to  serious 
misunderstandings ;  and  that  is  what  happens 
in  Socialist  circles.  The  party  considers  itself 
humanity ;  it  usurps  the  position  that  belongs 
to  the  whole.     In  this  way  the  race  is  divided 


160         SOCIALISM  :   AN  ANALYSIS 

and  rent  in  a  way  to  which  we  find  a  parallel 
only  in  the  ecclesiastical  fanaticism  which  divides 
men  into  believers  and  unbelievers,  and  takes 
no  account  of  anything  else.  Belief  becomes  party- 
belief,  a  mere  confession  of  faith  in  the  program 
of  the  party.  In  its  narrower  circles  the  move- 
ment recognises  no  right,  freedom,  truth,  or 
goodwill  outside  of  itself ;  the  others,  the  "  re- 
actionaries," have  only  the  opposite.  Everything 
is  staked  upon  a  sheer  alternative :  all  com- 
promise and  adjustment  is  rejected  ;  the  whole 
race  is  divided  into  friend  and  foe,  worker  and 
drone,  proletariat  and  capitalists.  The  individual 
is  from  early  years  impregnated  with  very  narrow 
views,  and  is  taught  to  regard  every  problem 
as  solved. 

For  the  race  as  a  whole  this  division  into  separate 
and  irreconcilable  worlds  is  very  injurious.  Ger- 
many has  already  had  painful  experience  of  the 
harm  that  is  done  by  this  sectarian  treatment, 
this  substitution  of  members  of  the  party  for 
citizens  of  the  State.  It  means  that  every  insti- 
tution and  measure  has  to  be  adapted  to  the 
interests  of  the  manual  workers.  Freedom  gives 
way  to  might.  For  true  freedom  it  is  essential 
that  a  man  can  put  himself  into  the  frame  of 
mind  of  others  and  converse  quite  impartially 
with  them,  instead  of  confining  himself  to  his 
own  circle.     The  chief  root  of  this  defect  is  the 


EXAMINATION   OF   THE   IDEAL     161 

lack  of  a  broad  and  uplifting  conception  of  the 
life  of  man  as  a  whole  :  the  inability  to  rise 
above  controversy  to  genuine  truth  and  serve 
it  in  preference  to  the  interests  of  ordinary 
human  nature.  When  this  power  is  lacking,  there 
is  an  unavoidable  division  into  parties,  and  no 
amount  of  zeal  for  socialisation  can  prevent  men 
from  drifting  apart. 

6.  Finally,  there  is  a  good  deal  of  contradiction 
in  the  details  of  the  ideal  offered  to  us.  There 
is,  in  the  first  place,  a  contradiction  in  the  funda- 
mental idea  of  Social  Democracy,  which  tries 
to  combine  two  diametrically  opposite  tendencies. 
.Democracy  and  Socialism  lie  too  far  apart  to 
be  combined  :  the  one  must  precede  the  other. 
Modern  thought  had  for  its  leading  idea  to  develop 
life  from  individual  centres  and  base  all  insti- 
tutions upon  their  will  and  work.  In  its  clearest 
form  it  brought  about  the  eighteenth- century  ideal 
of  a  State  with  freedom  and  law,  restricting  the 
interference  of  the  community  as  much  as  possible 
and  looking  to  the  free  activity  of  individuals 
for  salvation.  This  gave  the  lead  to  the  demo- 
cratic movement,  and  it  did  many  valuable  things. 

Socialism,  on  the  contrary,  takes  its  stand 
decisively  on  the  idea  of  the  whole.  Its  main 
concern  is  not  the  freedom  of  individuals,  but 
the  collective  welfare.  The  individual  has  to  sub- 
mit himself  and  his  personal  aims  to  this  common 

11 


162         SOCIALISM  :   AN   ANALYSIS 

welfare  ;  he  has  to  look  to  it  for  both  the  standard 
and  the  guide  of  his  efforts.  It  is  absolutely 
necessary  to  reconcile  these  tendencies.  The  free- 
dom of  individuals  and  the  unity  of  the  whole 
are  both  indispensable  for  the  spiritual  good  of 
the  race.  But  they  cannot  be  directly  reconciled 
on  the  surface  of  life.  They  can  be  combined 
only  by  a  considerable  uplifting  and  unification 
of  the  race.  Social  Democracy  as  a  party  has 
no  chance  of  doing  this.  /Its  two  tendencies 
cannot  develop  without  encroaching  upon  each 
other  and  restricting  each  other,  so  that  there 
cannot  logically  be  a  harmonious  social  structured 
The  logical  consequence,  both  for  life  and  the 
State,  is  merely  a  series  of  sharp  antagonisms. 

How  deeply  this  affects  the  fabric  of  life  may 
be  shown  by  considering  the  question  of  strikes. 
From  the  democratic  point  of  view  the  strike 
is  an  unlimited  right  on  the  part  of  citizens. 
Whether  the  use  of  the  weapon  on  any  particular 
occasion  profits  the  strikers,  or  how  far  a  strike 
injures  the  entire  economic  life  of  the  community, 
is,  from  the  democratic  point  of  view,  a  matter 
for  the  judgment  and  good  feeling  of  individuals. 
They  alone  are  responsible.  But  the  man  who 
is  chiefly  concerned  about  the  good  of  the  whole 
and  a  possible  injury  to  it  cannot  grant  this  un- 
qualified liberty  and  right  to  the  individual.  He 
seeks  some  legal  means   of  meeting  the  danger  ; 


EXAMINATION   OF   THE   IDEAL     163 

he  prefers  the  Socialist  idea  to  the  democratic. 
There  is  thus  a  contradictory  state  of  things. 
If  the  democratic  tendency  wins,  Socialism  has 
to  be  content  with  a  subordinate  position ;  if 
the  Socialist  tendency  prevails,  the  democratic 
movement  has  to  come  to  terms  with  it. 

The  Social  Democracy  of  our  days  tries  to 
occupy  an  untenable  middle  position.  It  is  on  a 
very  steep  slope.  There  must  be  either  a  liberty 
which  dissolves  the  common  life  into  a  number 
of  atoms  and  destroys  the  structure  of  the  State, 
or  a  collective  control  which  logically  leads  to 
complete  Communism  and  destroys  all  liberty. 
A  contradictory  situation  of  this  sort  may  be 
helped  for  a  time  by  a  compromise,  but  this  cannot 
inspire  a  common  will  or  bring  about  a  firm 
structure  of  the  whole.  In  reality  there  is  no 
room  for  an  idea  of  the  whole  or  of  freedom  in 
an  order  of  things  which  restricts  itself  to  mere 
existence  and  experience.  Reality  requires  greater 
breadth  and  originality  than  is  possible  in  such 
an  order.  That  is  the  only  way  to  adjust  the 
difficulty. 

In  Germany  the  confusion  is  especially  bad 
on  account  of  the  occurrence  of  three  great  poli- 
tical tendencies,  which  are  only  held  together 
by  the  parliamentary  system.  We  cannot  here 
enter  into  a  detailed  criticism  of  this  system. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  in  England  it  had  special 


164         SOCIALISM  :   AN   ANALYSIS 

conditions,  and  was  able  to  do  much  good,  but 
to  make  it  the  normal  type  of  constitutional 
life  has  done  a  great  deal  of  harm.  In  Germany 
we  have  political  Catholicism,  in  the  Centre  Party, 
added  to  the  distinction  between  Social  Demo- 
cracy and  democracy.  The  vast  distance  between 
the  ideals  of  the  three  is  clear  to  everybody ; 
their  practical,  and  not  merely  their  speculative, 
views  are  diametrically  opposed  to  each  other. 
This  is  very  clearly  seen  in  connection  with 
religion.  Social  Democracy  is  indifferent,  if  not 
hostile,  to  religion.  The  only  reality  it  concerns 
itself  about  is  of  this  world.  The  most  it  can 
do  for  religion  is  to  tolerate  it ;  it  cannot  re- 
cognise its  independent  value.  Democracy  may 
easily  develop  a  spiritual  world  in  the  individual 
as  a  being  endowed  with  freedom,  but  it  throws 
this  being  upon  its  own  resources  and  rejects 
the  idea  of  subjection.  Catholicism  places  the 
visible  world  under  the  power  of  an  invisible 
world  and  binds  the  individual  firmly  to  a  visible 
order  like  the  Church. 

Thus  the  three  political  orders  meet  and  clash 
with  each  other.  There  is  no  possibility  of  ad- 
justment unless  each  of  them  is  willing  to  with- 
hold its  fundamental  convictions  in  the  field  of 
politics,  and,  like  Social  Democracy,  declare  re- 
ligion to  be  a  man's  "  private  business."  For 
the  Catholic,  however,  it  is  a  first  principle  that 


EXAMINATION   OF   THE   IDEAL     1G5 

religion  is  anything  but  a  private  matter.     How 
can  there  possibly  be  any  reconcilation  of  these 
fundamental    contradictions  ?     Must    it    not    end 
in  a  collection  of  regulations  which  have  no  inner 
connection  with  each  other  ?     Can  there  be  any 
collective    will    in    such    a    situation  ?     And    will 
not  the  State  itself  in  such  a  case  fall  under  the 
power  of  parties  and  their  temporary  tendencies  ? 
The   more  the  consequences  of  the  situation  dis- 
close   themselves    the   lower   the    State   is    bound 
to  sink,  the  looser  its  inner  structure  will  become, 
and  the  less  moral  power  will  be  derived  from  it. 
It  is  clear,  then,  that  the  idea  of  socialisation 
is  full  of  difficulties,  and  that  it  sinks  deeper  into 
them  the  farther  it  proceeds  in  the  reconstruction 
of  life.     We   have   before   us    a   great,    an   indis- 
pensable, idea,  but  Socialism  cannot  carry  it  out. 
Its  standard  is  too  narrow.     By  restricting  itself 
to  the  visible  world  it  falls  under  the  power  of 
parties    and    forgets    man    as    a    whole.     Experi- 
ence  clearly  shows   us   that  Socialism   only   leads 
to  trouble  in  its  own  camp  when  it  tries  to  work 
out  its  scheme  in  detail.     New  parties  arise  con- 
stantly out  of  the  old.     The  mere  reason  of  man 
cannot    lay    the    spectres    which    it    has    raised. 
Each  particular  plan  of  the  whole  regards  itself 
as  superior  as  long  as  it  is  in  opposition,  but  the 
moment  it  attempts  constructive  thinking,  it  finds 
itself  confronted   by   a  new   opposition.     We   are 


166         SOCIALISM  :   AN  ANALYSIS 

threatened  with  a  terrible  chaos,  and  in  the  end 
the  force  of  some  strong  personality  may  have 
to  be  brought  in  to  put  an  end  to  it.  What 
becomes  then  of  the  inner  unity  of  the  race  and 
of  the  realm  of  peace  and  love  ?  Socialisation 
certainly  presents  problems  enough.  What  it  lacks 
is  the  power  to  solve  them. 


§6 
A    CRITICISM    OF    ECONOMISM 

In  the  case  of  economism  there  is  question  of  the 
value  of  the  economic  life  for  the  race.  It  is 
inevitable  that  there  should  be  great  changes  of 
the  old  order.  This  order,  which  was  mainly 
fixed  by  the  teaching  of  Aristotle,  was  closely 
connected  with  a  structure  of  society  that  we 
have  passed  beyond  in  the  course  of  our  evolu- 
tion. The  appreciation  of  spiritual  things  which 
inspired  the  old  order  was  determined  by  the 
existence  of  slavery.  It  was  only  because  the 
greater  part  of  the  race  was  in  a  state  of  servitude 
that  concern  about  material  things  could  be 
regarded  as  secondary.  The  matter  appears  in 
a  very  different  light  when  the  slaves  become 
free  and  independent  workers  ;  when  the  move- 
ment is  rather  from  below  to  above  than  the 
contrary,  and  thus  entirely  new  claims  make 
their  appearance.  The  rise  of  this  question  gives 
great  prominence  to  the  economic  factor,  and  is 
bound  to  shift  the  centre  of  gravity  of  the  collec- 

167 


168         SOCIALISM:   AN  ANALYSIS 

tive   life.     It   is   no   longer   a   sign   of  an   idealist 
disposition  to  make  light  of  the  economic  question. 

Moreover,  the  old  order  was  too  rigid,  too 
inaccessible  to  large  changes.  The  new  order 
wants  to  bring  men  and  things  into  a  state  of 
suspense,  and  to  oppose  to  every  limitation  the 
idea  of  indefinite  progress.  That  stiffened  man's 
self-consciousness,  and  gave  more  confidence  to 
his  conduct.  New  resources  were  discovered. 
Theory  took  the  lead.     New  forces  were  disclosed. 

In  fine,  the  technical  and  industrial  develop- 
ment has  entirely  changed  the  character  of  economic 
work.  It  produced  appalling  problems  which  it 
left  to  our  age  and  the  future  to  solve.  What- 
ever we  decide  in  this  field  seems  to  settle  the 
fate  of  the  race.  The  situation  is,  therefore,  one 
of  great  strain,  and  we  quite  understand  that 
every  available  force  is  summoned  in  the  attempt 
to  find  a  remedy.  (  But  the  Socialist  ideal  tried 
to  put  the  spiritual  and  material,  the  things  of 
sense  and  the  things  above  sense,  on  a  common 
footing  of  appreciation.  It  hoped  to  give  life 
more  power  and  more  continuity  in  this  way. 

We  have  to  question  this  idea  of  the  relation 
of  the  material  and  spiritual.  Socialism  is  quite 
right  when  it  refuses  to  treat  economic  things  as 
mere  means  to  an  end,  and  assigns  them  a  value 
of  their  own.  They  influence  the  whole  process 
of  life.     They  provide  new  powers,  new  stimula- 


EXAMINATION   OF   THE   IDEAL     1G9 

tions,  new  objects.     But  to  recognise  this  is  not 
at  all  the  same  thing  as  to  put  the  material  and 
the  spiritual  on  a  common  level.     Throughout  our 
whole  life  and  conduct  we  feel  the  antithesis  of 
mere  existence  and  a  world  of  action,  of  dependent 
and    independent    spirituality.     There    can    be   no 
question  of  making  them  equal :    one  must  lead, 
the  other  follow.     It  is  one  of  the  limitations  of 
Socialism  that  in  its  economism  it  knows  no  such 
thing    as    independent    spirituality,    or    treats    it 
merely  as  an  appendage  of  the  material.     Hence 
even  in  the  best  cases  Socialists  must  put  material 
prosperity  in  the  first  place.     This  means  a  lower- 
ing of  the  standard   of  things   which  require   an 
independent     spirituality,     and     an     absence     of 
independent  contacts. 

Here  we  have  the  fundamental  error  of  this 
naturalistic  Monism.  It  regards  the  psychic  life 
as  merely  a  process  in  individual  minds,  and  re- 
cognises no  connection  through  a  common  life. 
When  it  thus  confines  its  attention  to  individuals, 
it  can  justly  claim  that  the  individual  life  is 
closely  associated  with  others,  and  that  even 
the  frontiers  between  animal  and  human  life 
are  not  rigid.  But  it  fails  to  appreciate  the 
profound  fact  that  in  the  case  of  man  the  psychic 
life  does  not  consist  of  separate  points  ;  it  runs 
together  into  a  common  life.  This  common  life 
has   an   extraordinarily   rich   content,   and   it   has 


170         SOCIALISM  :   AN  ANALYSIS 

quite  different  features  from  those  of  nature. 
It  is  this  connectedness  that  makes  history  and 
society  in  the  strict  human  sense  possible ;  it 
alone  gives  rise  to  conceptual  language  and  culture, 
and  facilitates  the  branching  of  culture  into  the 
independent  provinces  of  law,  morals,  art,  and 
science.  It  is,  in  fact,  only  in  this  soil  that  an 
independent  economic  life  is  possible ;  for  there 
is  a  vital  difference  between  the  mere  natural 
impulse  to  assert  oneself  in  the  struggle  for  life 
and  the  effort  to  bring  about  a  common  economic 
order.  The  main  idea  of  the  latter  presupposes 
a  spiritual  and  independent  activity.  The  mere 
clash  of  natural  impulses  could  never  lead  to  the 
construction  of  an  economic  life. 

Naturalistic  economism  shares  with  material- 
istic naturalism  the  defect  of  treating  natural 
existence  as  the  chief  world,  and  then  applying 
to  its  intellectual  adaptation  powers  of  thought 
which  are  unintelligible  within  the  bounds  of 
nature.  This  contradiction  in  theory  leads  to 
contradiction  in  action.  Concern  about  the 
material  world  cannot  be  regarded  by  a  spiritual 
being  as  the  main  object  of  life.  His  efforts 
must  be  directed  to  an  autonomous  purpose  and 
value  somewhere ;  they  must  be  self-contained. 
The  acquiring  of  an  unlimited  amount  of  material 
things  cannot  in  the  end  satisfy  a  man.  Hence 
even  the  economic   life   has  to   be  included   in   a 


EXAMINATION   OF   THE   IDEAL     171 

larger  life  if  it  is  to  bring  a  man  happiness  and 
not  unhappiness.  Outwardly  the  desire  may  have 
no  limits  whatever,  but  there  is  a  subjective 
limit.  Concern  about  the  means  of  life  cannot 
be   the   substance   of  life. 

The  cares  and  complications  which  come  of 
the  wild  struggle  for  life  can  only  be  endured  when 
a  man  is  full  of  spiritual  interests  and  has  in  his 
mind  no  grave  moral  difficulties.  This  was  the 
idea  of  the  eighteenth  century.  It  made  life 
dependent  above  all  on  the  general  intelligence, 
and  from  its  insight  and  benevolence  it  expected 
everything.  As  regards  insight,  we  have  already 
said  enough  about  the  unsatisfactory  condition  of 
the  average  man.  But  there  is  no  doubt  that 
he  is  equally  unsatisfactory  morally.  Every  pro- 
found thinker  has  taken  these  moral  complications 
very  seriously.  Even  those  thinkers  who  in  their 
philosophy  zealously  contended  for  the  supremacy 
of  reason,  such  as  Aristotle  and  Leibnitz,  could 
not  refrain  from  sharp  censures  when  they  con- 
templated the  condition  of  men.  Different  ages 
have  expressed  these  censures  differently,  but 
there  is  a  general  agreement. 

The  thinkers  of  the  ancient  world  demanded 
a  firm  standard  of  judgment  and  a  harmonious 
development  of  all  a  man's  powers,  a  tranquillity 
even  in  the  midst  of  active  work.  They  found 
the    great    mass    of   men    full    of   insatiable   greed 


172         SOCIALISM  :   AN  ANALYSIS 

and  constantly  changing.  Christianity  declared 
that  charity  is  the  controlling  power  of  human 
life,  but  all  its  leaders  bitterly  deplored  the  lack 
of  charity,  the  great  indifference  of  men  to  each 
other,  the  destructive  power  of  selfishness. 
Modern  times  had  the  ambition  to  develop  every 
power  and  enable  all  men  to  share  in  the  advance 
of  life  ;  but  the  admission  had  to  be  made  that 
the  average  man  inertly  opposed  every  attempt 
to  stimulate  him  and  could  only  be  moved  by 
artificial  means.  It  can  be  shown  to  demonstra- 
tion that  the  more  any  thinker  reflected  on  the 
moral  task,  the  more  painfully  he  felt  the  distance 
of  the  average  man  from  the  ideal.  That  was 
the  case  of  Kant,  for  instance,  with  his  insistence 
on  truthfulness  and  integrity. 

Now  what  has  economism,  with  its  emphasis 
on  material  conditions,  to  say  on  this  question  ? 
On  Socialist  principles  it  casts  the  whole  blame 
for  our  moral  condition  on  the  perverse  and  corrupt 
social  conditions.  But  how  did  it  come  about 
that  a  nature  endowed  with  insight  and  benevo- 
lence created  such  conditions  ?  If  the  conditions 
are  so  bad,  their  author  cannot  have  been  very 
good,  f  And  if  men  are  of  their  own  nature  defec- 
tive and  contradictory,  a  change  in  their  conditions 
will  not  help  them  much.l  Man  is  always  human; 
no  new  constitution  will  deliver  him  from  the 
faults  of  his  own  nature.     The  character  of  the 


EXAMINATION   OF   THE   IDEAL     173 

constitution  matters,  of  course.  It  makes  a  good 
deal  of  difference  whether  a  man  lives  in  a  healthy 
or  an  unhealthy  social  atmosphere.  But  the 
internal  and  external  must  work  together.  It  is 
by  no  means  the  atmosphere  alone  that  deter- 
mines the  spiritual  condition.  Christianity  arose 
in  unfortunate  conditions,  but  it  did  not  give 
in  to  its  surroundings  :  partly  at  least,  it  over- 
came them. 

Every  civilisation  has  had  its  special  difficulties. 
A  certain  self-destruction  is  seen  unmistakably 
in  the  course  of  history.  Great  waves  break  upon 
men  and  races,  but  man  is  not  merely  passive 
under  them.  In  virtue  of  the  originality  of  the 
spiritual  life,  in  which  each  individual  may  share, 
and  in  virtue  of  the  influence  of  an  independent 
and  triumphant  spirituality,  he  can  begin  again 
and  find  in  the  depths  of  his  own  soul  something 
superior  to  all  environment  and  tradition.  Our 
condition  is  not  so  simple  or  so  restricted  as  this 
Socialist  economism  supposes.  Even  the  life  of 
the  community  is  more  varied  and  more  alive 
than  Socialism  represents  it  to  be.  It  contains 
many  levels  and  currents,  and  these  may  provide 
new  impulses  and  stimulations,  and  thus  affect 
individuals. 

Let  us  not  forget,  in  fine,  that  the  predomin- 
ance of  the  economic  may  assume  different  forms. 
There   is   capitalism,   with   its  terrible   power  and 


174  SOCIALISM  :   AN   ANALYSIS 

its  insatiable  cupidity.  There  is  on  the  opposite 
side  a  constant  condition  of  dissatisfaction,  envy, 
and  jealousy,  which  hampers,  and  may  entirely 
prevent,  the  inward  advance  of  life.  The  main 
thing  is  always  the  moral  problem,  the  state  of 
men's  souls.  Whatever  we  may  say  about  the 
historical  position  of  Christianity,  we  must  never 
forget  that  it  grasped  very  zealously  the  problem 
of  the  moral  renovation  of  the  race  and  sought 
to  give  a  firm  support  and  an  inner  harmony  to 
a  distracted  age.  Socialist  economism  is  apt  to 
underrate  this.  It  is  so  disposed  because  it 
regards  as  a  matter  of  course  the  constructive 
influence  which  came  to  men  from  Chris- 
tianity. But  we  have  just  now  a  painful 
consciousness  that  it  is  not  a  matter  of  course  ; 
that  it  requires  powerful  forces  and  earnest 
effort. 

Not  only  is  economism  apt  to  underrate  the 
inner  tasks  and  perplexities  of  men,  as  we  have 
seen,  but  its  ideal  of  happiness  is  too  superficial. 
Its  main  object  is  subjective  comfort,  pleasure. 
This  need  not  be  directly  sensuous  ;  it  may  assume 
spiritual  forms.  But  unless  pleasure  depends 
upon  some  real  content,  it  soon  becomes  sensuous 
and  vague.  Even  when  it  is  attained,  it  leads 
in  the  end  to  a  feeling  of  emptiness  and  tedium. 
It  makes  upon  life  a  great  claim  that  must  be 
satisfied,  a  driving  impulse  that  goes  beyond  the 


EXAMINATION   OF   THE   IDEAL     175 

mere  individual  and  shows  that  man  is  a  cosmie 
being,  a  sharer  in  infinite  life. 

That  should  be  our  attitude  in  regard  to  the 
main  feature  of  human  activity.  It  is  work. 
The  word,  however,  has  many  meanings,  and  the 
use  of  it  has  led  to  a  good  deal  of  confusion.  We 
have  only  to  think  of  work  which  is  imposed  upon 
us  by  the  pressure  of  the  needs  of  physical  or 
economic  subsistence,  and  then  of  our  inner  rela- 
tion to  an  object,  of  a  complete  psychic  disposition 
for  it,  an  adoption  of  it  into  one's  own  province 
of  life.  We  must  clearly  distinguish  between  the 
work  imposed  upon  us  and  this  self-chosen  work  : 
work  directed  to  without  and  work  directed  to 
within.  In  the  first  case  we  are  indifferent  to 
the  object ;  perhaps  we  hate  it.  In  the  other 
case  it  grows  with  our  inner  life.  In  the  one  case 
one  strives  to  avoid  the  work  as  much  as  possible  ; 
in  the  other  it  is  welcomed,  and  becomes  a  thing 
of  joy,  clearly  distinguished  from  any  other 
pleasure  by  the  relation  to  the  object.  It  is  only 
free  work  that  makes  an  appeal  to  a  man  and 
relieves  him  from  the  feeling  of  compulsion.  It 
alone  can  permeate  a  man's  whole  life. 

Within  the  psychic  life  itself  we  have  two 
stages.  All  genuine  work  embraces  the  object, 
and  binds  the  psychic  power  to  it,  but  it  makes 
a  difference  whether  the  object  has  merely  certain 
attractions   for  us   or   can   be   adopted   fully   into 


176         SOCIALISM  :   AN   ANALYSIS 

one's  own  life.  It  is  only  in  the  latter  case  that 
work  becomes  creative,  and  produces  new  reality  : 
here  alone  can  life  find  rest  in  itself  and  at  the 
same  time  attain  to  something  higher.  Working 
and  creating  do  not  mean  any  sort  of  selection 
from  a  confused  and  vague  collection  of  things  ; 
they  are  independent  members  of  a  comprehensive 
whole.  This  enables  man,  when  he  chooses  his 
task,  to  conceive  the  whole  as  his  own  concern 
and  share  the  uplift  of  life  that  proceeds  from  it. 
Happiness  is  not  a  matter  of  individual  elements, 
but  a  vast  source  of  life  upon  which  every  man 
may  draw,  and  which  he  may  regard  as  his  own 
possession.  It  is  one  of  the  chief  defects  of  modern 
times  that  we  have  far  too  much  compulsory, 
and  far  too  little  free,  work.  Hence  we  find  no 
true  happiness,  no  inner  contact  with  reality  as 
a  whole. 

We  have  seen  enough  about  the  mighty  problems 
which  confront  our  age.  Work,  which  had  a 
more  personal  character  in  earlier  times,  has  lost 
this  more  and  more  owing  to  the  intellectual 
and  technical  enslavement  of  the  forces  of  nature 
and  the  development  of  the  factory  system.  It 
has  created  gigantic  industrial  complexes  which 
bring  man  more  and  more  within  their  power. 
This  leads  to  immense  achievements  and  to  an 
increasingly  complex  division  of  labour,  but  the 
soul  remains  empty,  and  its  thirst  for  happiness 


EXAMINATION   OF   THE   IDEAL     177 

is  unsatisfied.  It  was  the  great  aim  and  the 
chief  duty  of  Socialism  to  satisfy  this  desire  and 
to  strengthen  the  souls  of  men.  But  here  again 
it  transpires  that  it  is  much  easier  to  formulate 
problems  than  to  solve  them.  The  antithesis  of 
the  ideal  of  work  and  the  ideal  of  happiness 
remains.  Socialism  means  by  soul  merely  a  man's 
powers.  We  saw  that  this  is  not  enough,  and 
only  lands  us  in  fresh  complications.  On  the 
other  hand  work  presses  its  claims  upon  us.  It 
seems  to  us  a  demoniac  force  that  we  would  shake 
off,  but  we  cannot  do  this  without  gravely  injuring, 
if  not  destroying,  civilisation. 

It  must  therefore  be  a  matter  of  deep  concern 
to  all  earnest  and  thoughtful  people  to  devise 
every  possible  means  of  ending  this  conflict  which 
distracts  the  race.  For  this  we  need  social  institu- 
tions and  regulations.  Here  more  than  anywhere 
else  we  need  wise  statesmanship  :  a  mind  that 
can  see  deep  into  the  nature  of  things  and  does 
not  shrink  from  the  most  drastic  means  of  bridging 
the  gulf  between  the  soul  and  work.  On  the 
other  hand,  however,  human  nature  itself  must 
be  deepened.  Superhuman  forces  must  be  brought 
to  life,  and  on  the  strength  of  these  we  must 
bring  about  a  spiritual — not  merely  a  religious 
— reformation.  This  alone  can  provide  an  ade- 
quate counterpoise  to  the  weight  of  material 
interests. 

12 


178         SOCIALISM  :   AN  ANALYSIS 

It  is  at  all  events  clear  that  modern  life  has 
two  poles  and  turns  upon  these :  a  spiritual 
culture,  which  has  the  power  of  overcoming  the 
antagonism  of  work  and  welfare,  and  an  economic 
culture,  which  can  meet  the  demands  of  nature 
and  the  social  collectivity.  vThe  great  problem 
of  our  day  is  to  bring  these  two  poles  into  har- 
monious relation  to  each  other  and  reconcile  the 
conflicting  points  of  view.  I  In  this  spiritual  force 
must  take  the  lead,  and  link  up  our  aims  with 
the  whole. 

In  fine,  it  is  not  a  question  merely  of  economic 
prosperity,  but  of  the  good  of  man  as  a  whole. 
The  chief  concern  is  not  personal  happiness,  but 
an  inner  uplift  and  transformation.  As  individuals 
and  even  as  social  units  we  generally  seek  our 
own  happiness,  but  when  we  reflect  we  see  that 
this  desire  of  happiness  is  only  a  means  to  lift 
us  to  the  heights  of  our  nature  and  make  more 
of  us  inwardly.  What  often  happens  in  the 
individual  probably  holds  good  also  for  the  whole  : 
a  man  often  attains,  not  what  he  sought,  but 
something  greater.  He  sought  happiness,  and 
found  a  new  life  and  being.  As  Goethe  said  : 
"  Saul,  son  of  Kis,  went  forth  to  seek  his  father's 
asses,  and  he  found  a  kingdom." 


CONCLUSION 


CHAPTER  V 
CONCLUSION 

All  the  various  points  that  we  have  hitherto 
considered  may  be  summed  up  in  one  question  : 
Can  Socialism  as  an  ideal  embrace  the  whole  life 
of  man,  supply  it  with  the  necessary  objects  and 
powers,  fully  develop  man's  capabilities,  and  satisfy 
the  desire  of  happiness?  ~\ 

It  believed  and  hoped  that  it  would  do  this 
by  setting  a  man  free  from  all  non-human  entangle- 
ments and  putting  him  on  the  ground  of  experience. 
It  was  convinced  that  the  problem  can  be  fully 
solved  by  the  combination  of  individual  forces, 
by  society,  especially  by  an  economic  collectivity. 
All  other  questions  merged  in  this.  All  other 
matters  were  coloured  by  this.  A  realm  was 
established  which  promised  to  meet  all  man's 
legitimate  aspirations. 

To  these  questions  we  have  to  give  a  clear  and 
unambiguous  answer.  We  reply  in  the  negative. 
Our  point  of  view  is  not  that  of  the  politician  or 
the  political  economist,  but  the  philosopher.     The 

181 


182         SOCIALISM:   AN   ANALYSIS 

philosopher  alone  can  tell  what  will  happen  to 
man  as  a  whole,  and  inwardly,  if  the  Socialist  ideal 
is  fully  realised. 

We  put  our  opinions  under  six  main  headings. 
In  each  case  we  found  that  Socialism  raises  for- 
midable problems  and  provides  valuable  stimula- 
tion, but  that  it  cannot  solve  the  problem  of 
life.  Its  treatment  is  far  too  narrow,  too  summary, 
too  partisan.  It  overlooks  the  depths  and  com- 
plexities of  human  nature,  and  its  action  could 
affect  only  part  of  the  surface  of  life.  Let  us 
again  glance  at  these  points. 

1.  Socialism  would  embrace  the  whole  movement 
of  life  and  give  more  unity  to  our  efforts.  The 
problem  is  inevitable ;  but  the  solution  offered 
to  us  does  not  go  beyond  a  limited  surface  and  a 
particular  level.  It  ignores  the  deeper  movements 
and  the  antagonisms  which  confront  us. 

2.  Socialism  makes  man  the  centre  of  all  effort, 
but  its  conception  of  human  nature  is  too  external. 
It  separates  man  from  reality  as  a  whole,  and, 
on  account  of  this  separation,  it  is  unable  tQ  give 
his  Jtife^^jneaninjrjand  yalue.^  It  is  only  a  con- 
nection of  life  with  the  life  of  the  whole  that  can 
give  it  substance. 

-3.  Socialism  would  make  life  entirely  a  thing 
of  the  present.  But  it  does  not  attain  to  a  living 
present.  It  falls  under  the  power  of  the  passing 
moment.     It  has  no  genuine  history. 


CONCLUSION  183 

4.  Socialism  would  bring  about  complete  equality. 
But  it  cannot  do  this  without  destroying  the  whole 
structure  of  society,  and,  if  it  is  thoroughly  con- 
sistent, sinking  into  a  condition  without  spirituality 
or  culture.  The  equality  it  aims  at  is  very  apt  to 
become  injustice. 
■v(5.  Socialism  would  bind  men  more  closely 
together  by  socialisation,  and  enable  them  to  do 
higher  things.  But  as  it  has  no  inner  power  to 
communicate,  the  whole  must  fall  apart  and  end 
in  a  struggle  of  each  against  all. 

G.  Socialism  treats  the  economic  task  as  the 
greatest  of  all.  It  cannot  do  this  without  gravely 
injuring  and  stunting  man's  nature  as  a  whole, 
and  particularly  his  inner  life.  The  external  would 
dominate  the  internal. 

In  sum,  there  is  here  no  right  content  of  life 
and   no   real   happiness.     The   whole   thing   is,   in 

Tiii»iih  '  ii'    i  i 

spite  of  all  that  has  been  done,  confined  to  the 
surface.  The  only  guide  of  conduct  is  utility.  A 
combination  of  superior  intelligence  and  sense- 
impulse  is  to  constitute  a  complete  man.  In- 
tellectualism  and  sensualism  together  are  to  con- 
trol life  and  rob  it  of  its  soul.  This  theory  suffers 
from  a  great  exaggeration  of  the  importance  of 
the  economic  means  which  are  provided  by  nature 
and  our  condition,  and  of  the  moral  faculty.  Man 
is  thought  to  be  naturally  good  and  noble.  It 
is  evil  conditions  that  are  responsible  for  the  un- 


184  SOCIALISM  :   AN   ANALYSIS 

happy  state  of  the  race.  That  was  the  idea  of 
Rousseau  and  the  French  Revolution,  and  it  is 
also  the  idea  of  Socialism.  The  coincidence  was 
bound  to  give  rise  to  powerful  movements  and 
fiery  passions,  but  it  leads  to  an  inner  degenera- 
tion. What  is  the  use  of  it  all,  if  there  is  no 
inward  life,  if  we  are  concerned  only  about 
material  existence  ? 

With  all  these  objections  and  censures  we  must 
not  fail  to  appreciate  what  Socialism  has  done. 
It  has,  in  the  first  place,  directed  upon  our  con- 
ditions a  vigorous  and  largely  justified  criticism. 
It  has,  in  particular,  made  the  economic  problem 
an  important  part  of  life  and  shown  how  significant 
its  consequences  are.  It  has  recognised  the  in- 
dependence of  the  workers  as  an  essential  element 
of  humanity,  and  this  is  bound  to  have  a  powerful 
influence  upon  the  whole  of  life.  Beyond  all 
these  services,  there  are  very  many  Socialists  who 
wish  to  see  a  new  life  inspired  :  more  love,  more 
unity,  more  happiness.  The  strength  of  this 
aspiration  must  be  considered  by  any  man  who 
would  understand  Socialism  rightly.  Yet  this 
aspiration  cannot  be  fulfilled  unless  it  is  based 
upon  larger  contacts  than  those  which  Socialism 
affords.  If  its  ideal  is  to  sacrifice  all  that  could 
be  gained  from  further  contacts,  a  spiritual  im- 
poverishment is  inevitable.  In  point  of  fact,  our 
whole  spiritual  atmosphere  is  steeped  in  historic 
work,  though  it  is  not  yet  recognised. 


CONCLUSION  185 

That  Socialism — taking  the  word  in  its  broadest 
sense — is  now  a  world-power  is  experienced  daily 
and  hourly  by  every  nation,  at  least  indirectly. 
There  were  two  chief  reasons  why  it  attained  this 
power,  and  the  coincidence  of  these  has  a  great 
effect  upon  the  actual  crisis.  Civilisation  has  not 
at  present  any  comprehensive  and  uplifting  aim. 
In  earlier  times  religion  gave  it  such  an  aim  ;  then 
it  received  one  from  intellectual  and  artistic  cul- 
ture. Realism  then  came  to  power,  and  under  its 
influence  life  divided  into  particular  currents,  many 
of  which  may  be  effective  in  detail,  but  the  general 
effect  is  to  divide,  not  to  unite. 

Upon  this  restless  age  fell  the  great  economic 
development :  the  radical  transformation  of  work 
and  the  appearance  of  the  economic  problem 
with  all  its  antagonisms.  This  problem  now 
dominates  the  situation.  It  has  dragged  the  whole 
race  out  of  its  orbit.  It  has  tried  to  put  life  on  a 
new  foundation.  It  has  raised  its  objects  to  the 
rank  of  objects  of  man  as  a  whole.  This  aim 
mixes  right  and  wrong  things  inseparably  together. 
Up  to  a  point  it  is  right,  but  it  becomes  wrong 
when  it  thrusts  aside  the  question  of  man  as  a 
whole,  and  substitutes  for  him  man  as  a  worker, 
especially  a  manual  worker. 

That  makes  the  standard  of  life  much  too  narrow. 
To  save  the  breadth  and  freedom  of  humanity 
we  have  to  fight  vigorously  against  this  threat  of 


186         SOCIALISM  :   AN   ANALYSIS 

narrowness.  The  race  must  make  a  great  struggle 
for  self-preservation.  We  have  to  decide  whether 
man  as  a  whole  is  to  be  the  ideal  or  whether  he 
is  to  be  sacrificed  :  whether  he  can  assimilate  the 
present  situation,  or  whether  it  will  destroy  him. 
The  danger  is  not  so  much  in  the  spiritual  content 
of  Socialism,  which  is,  nevertheless,  undoubtedly 
limited  and  one-sided,  as  in  the  absence  of  a  posi- 
tive aim  of  life,  a  comprehensive  and  uplifting  ideal. 
We  have  none  at  present.  The  future  must  have 
one,  and  it  must  at  the  same  time  properly  adjust 
the  relations  of  economic  and  spiritual  activity ; 
it  must  put  the  man  above  the  worker.  iWe  shall 
not  succeed  without  a  thorough  strengthening 
and  deepening  of  life,  a  spiritual  reformation. 
Personal  enthusiasm  cannot  help  us.  We  must 
be  acted  upon  by  higher  spiritual  forces  before 
there  will  be  any  great  change  in  us.  Perhaps 
we  are  entering  upon  a  new  religious  epoch  that 
will  give  us  inner  support  and  substance.  At 
all  events,  the  main  thing  is  our  spiritual  self- 
preservation,  accompanied  by  happiness.  Man  will 
find  that  by  his  spiritual  maintenance  he  is  superior 
to  all  political  and  social  problems.  Once  awakened 
to  spirituality,  he  will  never  part  with  it.  His 
spiritually  free  nature  cannot  tolerate  the  com- 
pulsion of  Socialism.  While,  however,  we  hope 
for  the  ultimate  triumph  of  man  as  a  whole,  there 
may  be   mighty  struggles  and  revolutions  before 


CONCLUSION  187 

it  is  attained.  The  immediate  outlook  has  little 
hope  in  it.  We  have  reached  a  fateful  turn,  and 
we  need  all  our  resources  to  decide. 

There  have  been  large  transfers  of  power  and  of 
value.  A  powerful  movement  has  arisen,  and  the 
feelings  of  whole  nations  as  well  as  individuals  are 
deeply  stirred.  But  we  have  no  containing  and 
uplifting  forces  to  provide  a  counterpoise.  There 
is  no  substance  in  our  life  to  direct  our  energies. 
Serious  changes  threaten  man  as  a  whole.  The 
thousand-year-old  content  of  society  is  in  ruins, 
and  elementary  forces  are  let  loose.  The  move- 
ment which  formerly  proceeded  from  above  to 
below  now  runs  in  the  opposite  direction.  That 
has  caused  immense  changes.  Man's  position  in 
regard  to  the  totality  of  things  is  altered.  He  is 
uncertain  about  himself  and  his  fundamental 
relation  to  reality.  The  bearers  of  moral  as  well 
as  religious  life  are  tottering. 

In  this  respect  our  age  is  a  tragic  spectacle. 
Modern  man  would  free  himself  from  all  entangle- 
ments and  rely  upon  his  own  powers.  He  thought 
that  he  could  do  everything  by  closer  combination 
and  a  full  development  of  his  faculties  on  the  level 
of  ordinary  existence.  With  feverish  energy  he 
sought  to  build  up  a  tower  as  high  as  the  heavens. 
Already  the  various  nations  are  in  confusion. 
With  all  their  talk  of  unity  and  equality,  men 
fall  wider  apart  than   ever.     We   see   clearly   the 


188  SOCIALISM  :   AN   ANALYSIS 

limitations  of  our  race.  Enthusiasm  for  humanity 
is  dying  down.  It  must  soon  be  decided  whether 
our  social  order  and  civilisation  are,  or  are  not, 
strong  enough  to  bring  about  an  inward  unity, 
to  engender  the  needful  spiritual  forces,  to  find  a 
remedy  for  the  psychic  isolation  of  the  race  as 
well  as  of  individuals.  If  not,  they  must  perish, 
and  they  deserve  to  perish.  The  spiritual  world 
itself  is  safe  enough,  and  stands  above  all 
changes  and  human  feverishness,  as  the  stars 
shine  high  above  the  earth.  It  is  not  impossible 
that  the  race  must  actually  learn  by  a  crass  denial 
of  the  existence  of  independent  spirituality  and 
the  destruction  of  all  invisible  contacts  how  vitally 
it  needs  them.  Meantime,  let  each  faithfully  do 
his  duty  and  keep  the  totality  of  things  firmly 
in  view. 


Printed  in  Great  Britain  by 

UNWTN  BROTHERS,  LIMITED,  THE  GREBHAM  TRESS,  WOKING  AND  LONDON 


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